the fruit is ripe in Autumn Government and Virtues This Balsome-tree is a Solar plant of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and is sweet in smell being of thin parts but the liquor or Opobalsamum is of more thin parts than the plant it self the fruit or berries is very like it in quality but far inferior thereunto in the subtilty The Liquor or Opobalsamum is of great good use against all poisons or infections Poys ns Vipers Scorpions Pestilence Spotted Feaver Liver Spleen Head Stomack brain Memory Falling-sickness Eyes Eares Coughs Consumption Cold Wind Bowells Mother Barrenness Dead-birth Whites Vrine Stone Gravel Palsy Cramp Sinews Green Worms both Vipers Serpents and Scorpions the Pestilence and spotted Feaver and other putride and intermissive Agues that arise from obstructions and crude cold humors to take a scruple or two in some drink for some dayes together and to sweat theron for this openeth the obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and digesteth those raw humors in them cherishing the vital spirits radical moysture and natural heat in them and is very effectual in all cold griefs and diseases of the head or stomack helping the swimmings and turnings of the brain weak memories and falling-sickness it cleareth the eyes of films or skins and easeth paines in the Eares It helpeth the cough shortness of breath and consumption of the Lungs warming and drying up the distillations of Rheums upon them and all other diseases of the stomack proceeding of cold or wind the cold or windy distempers of the bowels womb or mother which cause torments or pains or the cold moystures procuring barrenness It provoketh the courses expelleth the dead birth and afterbirth the flux of the Whites and stopping of Urine it cleanseth the Reins and kidneys and expelleth the stone and gravel it is singular good against the Palsy Cramp tremblings convulsâ—ons shrinking of sinews and for green wounds The women in Aegypt preserve their beauty and youth herewith for a long time The berries are especially good against poysons and infections the falling sickness swimmings and pains in the head the cough and diseases of the Lungs windy pains and Stitches in the sides stopping of Urine rising of the mother and other diseases thereof to sit in a bath made of them The wood is also though in a farre weaker manner effectual for the same purposes Bdellium Name BOth the tree and Gum are called by one name that is Bdellium and gum Bdellium Descript Dioscorides giveth no description of this tree but Pliny Lib. 12. cap. 9. setteth it down to be of a sad form and of the bigness of the white olive tree having leaves like an oak and fruit like the wild figtree the best Gum is clear like glew fat on the inside easily melting or dissolving pure or clean from drosse sweet in the burning like unto Unguis Odoratus and bitter in tast but there is hardly any such brought unto us for we find little bitternesse in any and lesse sweetnesse in the burning of it but strong and unpleasant rather neither is it soft or easie to be dissolved but hard and not to be dissolved Equally but into graines or knots without warmth yet it is of a sad brown colour somwhat like glew and much like unto Myrrhe so that they are often mistaken one for another but that Bdellium is harder dry and browner but there are sundry sorts therof as saith Mathiolus and Bauhine in his Comment upon him for the Indians and Arabians who were the chief merchants for drugs had learned the art of Adulterating them of whom the Jews learned that art and have since exceeded them therein as the Vintners and Coopers study who shall out-doe others in the mysterious Mystery and mischeif of sophisticating and adulterating wines Place Arabia is said to be the chief place where they naturally grow yet in Genesis 2. it is said it groweth in the land of Havilah which is compassed by the River Pishon one of the heads of the River which went out of the Garden of Eden which land of Havilah joyneth to Persia Eastward and doth incline towards the West where it is said is Gold Bdellium and Onyx stone Government and Virtues Both tree and Gum Bdellium are peculiars to the Jurisdiction of Mars the tree is very sharply armed with cruel Thorns the Properties of the Gum are to heat and mollifie hard Tumors Tumors Nodes knots Terms Stone cough serpents Spleen Sides Burstness Cods Dead-birth Mother and the Nodes or knots in the throat neck or Sinews or of any other parts any way applied it provokes Urine and womens courses and breaketh the Stone it is good for the Cough and for those that are bitten or stung by any Venemous creatures It helpeth to discusse the windiness of the Spleen and the pains of the sides it is good for those that are bursten or have the falling of the guts into their Cods as also for the swellings of the Cods through wind It expelleth the dead birth softneth the hardness of the mother and dryeth up the moysture thereof Buckwheat Names IN most Countries of England this grain goeth by the generall name of French Wheat especially in Hampshire Surry Berkshire Wiltshire and Buckinghamshire especially in those barren parts of those countries where it is most usually sown and delighteth to grow it is also in many parts of England called Buckwheat some take it to be the Erysinum of Theophrastus and the Ireo of Pliny and it is called by Mathiolus Frumentum Sarasenicum the Dutch names are Bâ—ckweydt and Buckenweydt Descript It riseth up with divers round hollow reddish stalks set with divers leaves each by it self on a stalk which is broad and round and lye forked at the bottom small and painted at the end somwhat it doth resemble an Ivy leafe but is softer in handling at the top of the stalks come forth divers clusters of small white flowers which turn into small three-cornered blackish seed with a white pulpe within the root is small and threddy Place and Time It is said to have its original birth-place in Arabia whereby it had the Latine name of Frumentum Sarasenicum and was transplanted from thence into Italy but now it is very commonly sown in most of our Northern countries where for the use and profit made of it many fields are sown therwith it is not usually sown before April and sometimes in May for at its first springing up a frosty night kills it all and so it will do the flowers when it blossomes it is ripe at the latter end of August or beginning of September and will grow in a dry hungry ground for which it is held as good as a dunging Government and Virtues This grain is attributed to Venus it doth nourish lesse then wheat Rye or barly but more then millet or Paâ—ick and the bread or cakes made of the meal thereof doth easily digest and soon passe out of the stomack yet some hold the contrary
and Virtues Saturn rules this plant the leaves and fruit are dry in the third degree without any manifest heat and very astringent the fruit of Cypress taken into the body stoppeth looseness and the Bloody flux Bloody Flux and is good against spitting of bloud and all other issues of bloud Issues of blood the decoction of the same made with water hath the same vertue The oyle in which the fruit or leaves of Cypress have been boyled doth strengthen the Stomack Stomack Vomiting stayeth Vomiting stoppeth the belly Broken Belly and all fluxes of the same and cureth the excoriation or going off of the skin from the secret members Cypress-nuts cure them that are bursten and that have their Guts fallen into their Cods being outwardly applied in Cataplasms thereunto the leaves have the same vertue but not so strong the fruit of Cypress is also good to cure Polypus Pollypus which is corrupt flesh growing in the nose The same bruised with dry fat figs doth cure the blasting and swellings of the Yard and Stones Yard Stones and if leaven be added thereunto it dissolveth and wasteth botches and boyls being laid upon the grieved place The leaves of Cypress boyled in sweet Wine or Mede doth help the Strangury strangury and issue of the Bladder the same beaten very small and applied doth close up green Wounds Green-Wounds and stop the bleeding thereof and being applied with parched Barly-meal they are profitable against St. Anthonies-fire St. Anthonies-fire Carbuncles carbuncle and other hot Ulcers Vlcers and fretting sores Sores the leaves and fruit of Cypress being infused in Vinegar and the hair washed therewith maketh it black Hair Coral Kind and Names THere be several kinds of Coral but the red and the white especially the red is most in use there be also several sorts of black Coral called Antipathes and ther is a kind of Coral which is black rough and bristly and is called Sambeggia Descript These plants although their hard substance make them seem rather to be Stones yet they are vegetables The greater red Coral which is the best groweth upon rocks in the Sea like unto a shrub with arms and branches which shoot forth into sprigs some greater and some lesser of a pale red colour for the most part when it is taken out of the water but when it is pollished it is very fair and of a lovely red colour whilest it is in the water it is soft and pliable but being taken out and kept dry a while it becomes of an hard stony substance Place The Corals are found in the Isles of Sardinia and divers other places of the Mediterranean Sea Time Coral is found growing at all times in the year Government and Virtues Coral is under the dominion of the Sun yet reputed to be of a cooling and astringent quality the red is the hottest the white the coldest it is good to stop the Running of the Reins in Men Running of the Reins Whites Bleeding spâ—â—en Strangury Spleen Stone Heart stomack Liver Feavers and the Whites in Women the red Coral stops bleeding and is good for them that spit bloud or any flux of bloud being taken in Wine or other drink It abates the Slpeen helps the stoppage of Urine and such as pisse by drops the powder of it being burnt and taken in drink easeth the pain of the Stone It strengthens the Heart Stomack and Liver and is good in all pestilential Feavers and malignant diseases it is good against Venome chears the Heart and is good against Melancholy there is an excellent Cordial made of it called Tictura Corallii singular good for all the purposes aforesaid the powder taken in Wine or distilled Water gives rest to such as have Agues helps the Cramp Cramp it is good against the Falling-Sickness some write that if two grains of the powder of red Coral be given to a Child newly born in some black cherry water or the Mothers milk that Child shall never be troubled with the Falling-Sickness Falling-Sickness it is likewise good to cause easie Delivery Easie Delivery to rub Childrens Gums Gums to help their teeth to break forth more easily Teeth it helps sore Gums and Ulcers in the Mouth and healeth up foul hollow Ulcers in other parts Vlcers it is also profitable to be used in medecines for the Eyes to stay the Flux of Rhume It cools and dryes up the moisture and takes away the heat and redness of the Eyes the aforementioned Tincture and likewise the Chymical oyl may be used for any of the aforesaid purposes Cardamoms Names THey are called Cardamom and Grana Paradisi by some Grains of Paradice Descript Cardamoms grow upon a small tree in the East-Indies and Arabia which beareth the seeds in husks in which they are brought hither and sold in our shops for medicinal use Government and Vertues These seeds called Cardamoms are hot and dry in the third degree under the dominion of Jupiter It breaketh the Stone Stone Vrine Poison Scorpions and provoketh Urine and giveth ease to such as make water with pain it resisteth Poison and helpeth stingings or bitings of Scorpions or other Venemous creatures It is good against the Falling-Sicknesse Falling-sickness Guts Wind Bruises Sinews Sciatica Gripings in the Guts or Bowells expelleth Wind from the Stomack and intrails helpeth such as are bruised or broken by falls or bruises those that have loose or weak Sinews and pains of the Sciatica or Hip-gout and used with Vinegar it is good against Scabs and is an ingredient in many of our compositions and cordial Antidotes Cloves Names THey are called in Latine Caryophylli Descript The tree wherin the Cloves do grow is great tall covered with an Ash-coloured bark the younger branches being more white the leaves grow by couples one against another somewhat long and narrow like to bay leaves with a middle rib and sundry veins running through them each of them standing on a long footstalk the ends of the branches are divided into many small brown sprigs wheron grow the flowers on the tops of the Cloves themselves which are white at the first with their sprigs green afterwards and at last reddish before they be beaten off from the tree and as they dry before they be put up grow blackish as they are brought to us having four small tops at the heads of them and a small round head in the middle of them the flower it self standing between those consisteth of four small leavs like unto a Cherry blossom but of an excellent blew colour with three white Veines in every leaf and divers purple-threds in the middle of a more fine scent then the dried Clove Place The Clove-trees grow in the Molucca-Islands where they gaâ—her them twice every year viz. in June and December they grow plentifully also in Amboyna and in divers other places of the Indies â—he Indians generally call them
way Place and Time This tree groweth in Arabia in many places and in Aegypt and floureth and beareth fruit twice a year and hath alwayes green leaves Government and Vertues It is Saturnine the gum hath a thickning condensing and cooling property and is very effectual to represse and cool the heat and sharpness of humors and to bind or close up the open passages of the skin and keeping the places from blistering that are burnt with fire being dissolved with the white of an Egg and applied It is also very serviceable for Limners Dyers to make the best writing Ink and many other external uses Gum Tragacanth Names and Descript THe tree hereof is called Goats-thorn which is a small bushy plant rising up with many tough pliant or flexible woody stems about two foot high divided into many slender branches covered with a white hoariness with divers long white thorns in a double row among which rise up many small long and round leaves which abide always green there grow flowers at the tops of the branches and amongst the leaves of a pale yellow colour which turn into small white cods containing in them small whitish cornered seed the root is great and long much spreading in the ground which being cut or broken yeeldeth a pure white shining Gum in small crooked peeces of a sweet tast Place All sorts of these trees are found in Candia and about Marselles and Mompelier Time In the places where they naturally grow they flower and seed in the beginning of Autumne Government and Vertues There is no physical use known of either the leaves flowers seeds or roots of Tragacantha but onely of the gum it self which partaketh of the influence of Venus it is of a temperate property and besides the medicinal uses thereof it serveth for many external purposes as a starch or glew for which young Ladies use it to make their Artificial flowers and other gum-works This gum being dissolved is often used to be mixed with pectoral syrrups honey or juice of Liquorice to help the Cough or Hoarseness Coughs Hoarseness in the Throat salt and sharp distillations of Rhume upon the Lungs Rhume Lungs being taken as an Electuary or put under the tongue so to go gently down he said gum diâ—â—olved in sweet Wine a dram at a time and drunk is pâ—ofitable for the knawing pains in the Bowells Knawings-Bowels and the sharpness of Urine and frettings either in the Reins or Bladder Reines Bladder especially if it be mixed with some burnt Harts-horn the said Gum is also good for the Eye sight Eyes Sight being used alone or mixed with other things proper for the same purpose to allay the heat and sharpness of hot Rhumes the said gum mingled with milk taketh away white spots growing in the black of the Eyes and the Itching of the Eyes and Wheals or scabs upon the Eye-lids and being mixed with the juice of Quinces and used in a glister is good against the Bloody-flux and is generally used where there is cause of making smooth the Lungs breast or Throat or the wind-pipe being grown sharp or harsh by Rhumes and is excellent to represse and dry up sharp and thin matter and is excellent for Ulcers in any of the parts before-named Gum Elemni Description and Vertues WHat tree this gum is taken from we have no certain description it is a yellowish gum cleer and transparent which being broken sheweth more white and gummi within it will easily take fire and is of a quick scent and tast The properties of it are these It is of excellent use for all wounds and fractures of the Head and skull to be mixed with Balsomes and Oyntments for that purpose and is good for the Tooth-ach when Rhumes fall into them to be applied unto the Temples as Mastick Gum Tacamahacca THis Gum is reported to be gathered from a tree like unto Poplar being very sweet having a red fruit or berry like unto a Peony Government and Vertues Mercury rules it the gum is good for many external uses but not being known to be given inwardly it is useful for Women to retain the mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel Matrix and putting a little Musk Amber or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This gum being applied as a plaister spread upon leather to the side or Spleen Side Spleen Tumors Pains Joints stomach digestion head-ach Brain Memory Defluxions Face Eyes Eares Teeth Gout Sciatica Punctures that is grown hard and Windy disperseth the Wind and dissolveth the Tumors and is effectual in all Tumors and pains of the body or Joints which come from cold raw and Windy humors applied thereon Take of this gum with a third part of Sâ—orax a little Ambergreese and some Wax and make a plaister thereof and apply it to the Stomack doth much strengthen the weakness thereof and digestion provokes appetite and breaks Wind it is good in the Headach and to strengthen the Brain and Memory as also in all defluxions from the Head into the Face Eares or Teeth to be applied to the Temples or to be put into the Ear tyed in a little fine silk or Cloth it is good also for pains in the joints Gout and Sciatica it speedily helpeth Punctures and Wounds in the joints it is hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second with much astriction Herb Robert Names IT is called Geranium Robertianum vulgare the common Herb Robert Descript The common Herb Robert springeth up with a reddish stalk about two foot high having divers leaves thereon upon very long and reddish footstalks divided at the ends into three or four divisions and each of them cut in on the edges some with deeper cuts than others and all dented likewise about the edges which oftentimes turn reddish at the tops of the stalks come forth divers flowers consisting of five leaves a peece larger then those of the Garden Musk and of a more reddish colour after which come beaky heads like long bills the root is small and threddy the whole plant is of a very strong smell Place Herb Robert groweth frequent every where by wayes sides upon the banks of Ditches and wast grounds Time It flowereth chiefly in June and July and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Herb Robert is a plant of Mars and is very much commended against the Stone and not onely so but also to stay blood Stone Flux of Blood Green wounds Vlcers from what part soever flowing it is excellent good speedily to heal all green wounds and is effectual likewise in old Ulcers either in the secrets or any other parts Hermo-dactyls HErmodactils are to be reckoned amongst the number of unknown drugs they being brought into England in abundance but no Author hath hitherto declared the place or growing thereof but only Mesne who saith it is the root of a Mountain herb whereof some are long and round
like a finger white both without and within but the Hermodactils used in shops are not such they are small and somewhat flat thick short white roots and some are blackish which are not good they are of a firm substance yet easie to be cut or made into powder and of little or no tast but drying Government and Vertues They are Solar hot and dry in the second degree and are effectual in purging forth flegmatick slimy and watry humors Flegm Watry Humors from the joints and therefore good to help the Gout and other running joint-aches and is used to good purpose with other things in diet-drinks Hermodactils are apt to stir up Windiness and trouble the Stomach but may be corrected with either Ginger long Pepper Anniseeds or Comin Hone-wort Names IT is called also Corn-parsly and Selinum Segetale and Hone-wort Descript It is a small low Herb having sundry winged long leaves lying on the ground many being set one against another finely dented about the edges with one at the end which are each of them longer than Burnet-leaves and pointed at the ends among which rise sundry round stalks half a yard high with the like but lesser leaves on them branching forth likewise from the joints and all of them bearing small Vmbells of white flowers which turn into a small blackish seed lesse than Parsley seed but in tast as hot and sharp as it the root is small long and white and perisheth every year after it hath yeelded its seed and springeth up again of its own sowing Place It groweth in Fields among Corn or in places where Corn hath been sown and by the sides of Corn-fields I have found it grow plentifully in the Fields between Camberwel and Dulwich Time It flowereth in Harvest time and the seed is ripe in September Government and Virtues It is under the planetary rule of Mercury as the other parsleys are of a cutting exterminating nature and effectual for the same purposes Parsley is Parkinson saith that Mr Goodier of Hampshire reported to him that the use of a handful of the leaves being drunk in a draught of Beer every morning for a fortnight did cure one that had a Swelling in her cheek arising there yearly and Mr. Roger Dixon Chirurgion did use it for Swellings and Tumors Jack by the Hedge Names IT is called also Sawce-alone and in Latine Alliaria Descript This Herb at his first springing up hath roundish leaves the lower are rounder then those that grow towards the tops of the stalks and are set singly one at a joint being somewhat round and broad and pointed at the ends and jagged about not much unlike Nettle-leaves but greater and of a fresher green colour and not rough nor pricking the which being bruised between the fingers have the savor and smell of Gar-like but more pleasant and tasteth somewhat hot and sharp the flowers are very small and white growing at the tops of the stalks one above another like to Rocket and after them succeed long Cods or husks wherein is contained a small round blackish seed the root is stringy and threddy perisheth every year when it hath given seed and of its own seed springeth again Place This plant delighteth to grow in low untilled grounds undâ—◠〈…〉 the borders of Meadows and moist pastures and by He◠〈◊〉 and path wayes in many places Tiâ—â—â—â— â—ack by the Hedge floureth in May and June and the seed is ripâ— soon after Government and Vertues It is a plant of Mars of temperature hot and dry in the third degree Sawce-alone hath been much used and is still in some places by people for sawce to their meat in stead of Garlick and it is likewise a good sawce to fish and helpeth to digest the crudities and other corrupt humors ingendred by the much eating of Fish it warmeth the Stomack Stumack and causeth digestion Digestion the juice boiled with hony is very good for the Cough Cough to help to cut and expectorate tough Flegm Flegm the seed bruised and boiled in Wine is a good remedy for the wind-Chollick Chollick and S one Stone being drunk warm the same for Women troubled with the Mother Mother both to drink warm and the seeds put into a Cloth and applied warm the decoction of the leaves or seed is good in glisters to ease pains of the Stone the green leaves are good to cleanse and heal Ulcers Vlcers in the legs the root hath a tast like unto Radishes and may be used in the same manner and to the same purposes as they are Jessamine or Jesmine Names IT is called Jasminum and Gelseminum vulgatius et album there being reckoned amongst Authors four other kinds as Jasminum vel Gelseminum Catalonicum simplex the single Spanish Jasmine Gelseminum vel Jasminum Catalonium multiplex The double Spanish Jasmine Gelseminum sive Jasmimum Indicum flavum odoratissimum The Indian most sweet yellow Jasmine And Gelseminum sive Jasminum luteum Odoratum Virginianum scandens et semper virens The sweet yellow climing Virginian Jasmine Desâ—ript The ordinary Jasmine springeth up with many long shoots from the root divided into many small branches full of joints or knots and covered with a dark grayish bark these shoots or twigs are filled with a white spongy pith within like the Elder the leaves be of a dark green colour winged and parted into several other little leaves the flowers be white and long of a sweet and pleasant savor standing divers in a tuft together at the tops of the small branches which fall away without bearing of any fruit in our Country but in hotter Countries where it naturally groweth it beareth a flat seed like a Lupine the root spreadeth far in the ground and increaseth by yeelding of many suckers Place Jasmine the three first sorts thereof grow well in Spain and are supposed to have been brought thither out of Syria none grows here but such as are planted in Gardens Time Jasmine floureth in July and August but the fruit thereof never cometh to perfection in this Country Government and Vertues Jasmine is under the Solar Influence It is hot almost in the second degree as saith Serapio and hath a bitter tast Jasmine is effectual to cure the foul dry Scurff and red Spots Scurff Spots Swellings Wens flegm Catharrs Head-ach Freckles Morphew Tetters Ring-worms Cramp Stiches and dissolveth cold Swellings and Wens or hard lumps or knobs gathered together in the flesh being pultis-wise applied thereon It discusseth humors is good against salt Flegm and is profitable for old men that are troubled with Catharrs and tough Flegm but it breedeth the Head-ach in those who are of an hot constitution if they use it the leaves either green or dry do cleanse Freckles Morphew Spots and discolourings of the Face and other parts of the body and helpeth Tetters and Ring-worms There is an Oyle made of the flowers by infusion which is good for any cold part
of the body to warm it and to ease the paines of the Cramp and Stiches in the sides There is also an Oyntment made with the flowers and grease or butter which they call Jessamine-butter which the barbers use to rub amongst mens hair for what purpose I know not for in such as are young or of hot Complexions is causeth Head-ach and the often smell thereof causeth bleeding at the nose as Serapio saith but it profiteth such as are troubled with cold Rheumes or distillations of humors from the Head and moistness and cold infirmities of the brain John the Infants herb Name s IT is called in Latine Herba Johannis Infantis and took the name from one Inan Infanta an Indian the Son of a Spaniard Descript It is a small herb growing in the West-Indies and used to cure wounds staunch their bleeding and helpeth all hurts pricks and wounds in the sinewss or any other part of the body digesting cleansing and healing them by laying some of the green herb bruised thereunto or else the powder of the dryed herb strewed thereon which is thought to be most effectual The Jujube-tree Names and Kinds DOdoneus saith There be two sorts of Jujubes red and white and since there is found three kinds of the red Jujube viz. The greater Jujube-treâ— called in Latine Ziziphus sive Jujuba Major The lesâ—er Jujube called Ziziphus or Jujuba minor and the wild Jujube-tree Descript 1. The greater Jujube-tree groweth sometimes to be very high but rather and more often spreading in breadth having a crooked body the wood thereof is hard and whitish the bark rugged the branches are great and spreading the lesser twigs about a foot long are full of leaves on both sides one a little above another and an odd one at the end these leaves are small broad and pointed at the end finely dented about the edges with long veins in them each standing on a long foot stalk smooth and feel hard at the foot of every leaf towards the tops of the Twigs come forth small yellowish flowers consisting of five leaves apeece after which succeed the fruit which is like unto a small Plum or Olive but a little long green at the first and then they are harsh afterwards they become yellowish and when they are ripe they are red of a sharp sweetness and somewhat clammy flattish next the stalk and the skin is thicker and harder then a plum the stone within it is firm and solid pointed like an Olive or Cornelian Cherry-stone The branches are all thorny both great and small standing two alwayes at a joint one whereof is straight the other crooked the roots are long and fast in the earth Descript 2. The lesser Jujube-tree is both in branches leaves and flowers very like unto the former but in all parts is lower and smaller the fruit also is alike and red when it is ripe but smaller and rounder having also an hard stone in it it is thick set with thornes also as the other but they are somewhat shorter Descript 3. The wild Jujube-tree is lower and more like a shrub than the last but thicker set with small sharp thorns the leaves are alike but growing fewer on a twig and smaller the fruit is round and red like the last somewhat lesser and dryer of substance and more sharp when it is ripest Place The first groweth naturally in Africa Egypt and those Easterly Countries and was as Pliny saith brought thence into Italy where it is now plentifully in Gardens Orchards in Italy also in Provence in Fran. The other is to be likewise found in Italy in some Gardens of the Curious And was of late times brought thence from Syria the wild kind groweth in the fields by hedges not far from Verona and such Countries Time They flower in May and the plums are ripe in September Government and Vertues The Jujubes especially being fresh do open the body and gently purge Choler Choler and cleanse the blood Bloud as Simon Sethi and Actuarius say but Mathiolus and Avicen deny their purging faculty Heal The plums Venus governs and they are endued with a temperat quality in heat and moisture they cool the heat and sharpness of the blood and therefore are good in hot Agues Hot-Ague and to expectorate tough Flegm and are good for other diseases of the Chest Chest and Lungs Lungs Coughs Cough and shortness of Breath hot distillations they appease the roughness of the Throat and breast being taken in syrrups or Electuaries They are good to cleanse the Reins and bladder by their viscous quality making the passages slippery and the Gravel and Stones to avoid the more easily they also stay Vomiting which are caused by sharp humors they are hard of digestion being eaten either fresh or dry and therefore are used in decoctions syrrups or Electuaries with other things fit and proper for all the purposes asorementioned A decoction may be made with Jujubes for all sharp and salt humors in the Kidneys and bladder and for all Ulcers or inflamations in the back Reins and Bladder and for the stone Jaundies falling-sickness and dropsie It is thus prepared Take Jujubes of the seeds of Parsly Fennel Annise and Carawayes of each an ounce of the roots of Parsley Burnet Saxifrage and Carawayes of each an ounce and an half let the seeds be bruised the roots washed cut small let them all infuse all-night in a pottle of White-wine and in the morning boyled in a close earthen Vessel untill a third part thereof be consumed strain it and drink four ounces hereof at a time morning and evening first and last abstaining from other drink three hours this will powerfully open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cureth the Dropsie and Jaundies by Urine The white Jujube-tree with thornes and without Names ZIziphus alba Spinosa non Spinosa are the most proper Names there being two sorts of this tree one beareth Thornes the other none but in all other things they are both alike Descript This tree groweth as great as a middle sized Pear-tree covered with a whitish ash-coloured bark over both body and boughs full of short and sharp thornes two at each leaf not far asunder on the one sort and not any on the other the leaves are somewhat like those of the red Jujube tree but greater round pointed for the most part with three ribs in each running all the length of a dark shining green colour on the upper side and somewhat ash-colour under standing singly on each of branches up to the top At the joints with the leavs shoot forth small flowers of a greenish white colour in form like those of the Olive or Jujube-tree each standing on a small foot stalk the flowers being fallen away there followes a small round fruit as big as a Cherry and sometimes of the bigness of a Walnut in some whitish in others more yellow and reddish on the one side like an Apple
only planted in Gardens Time The Lupines do flower in July and August and the seed is ripe soon after Government and Vertues Lupines are under the dominion of Mars and have an opening cleansing dissolving and digestive property but if they be steeped in water untill they have lost their bitterness they may be eaten but they are very hard to digest and breed grosse humors and passe slowly through the belly yet do not stop any flux If they be so steeped Appetite Stomack Liver Spleen Vrine Terms Dead-Child Scabbs Morphew cankers Tetters Sores and afterwards dryed and taken with Vinegar they provoke Appetite and help the loathing of the Stomack to meat The decoction of Lupines taken with hony opens obstructions of the Liver and Spleen provokes Urine and the Terms and expelleth the Dead-child if it be taken with Myrrhe The decoction of them cleanseth the body of Scabs Morphew Cankers Tetters and soul running Ulcers or Sores It also cleanseth the Face and taketh away the marks or pits which the Pox leaves behind it and cleareth the skin of Marks and black and blew Spots An oyntment of Lupines to beautifie and make the Face Amiable is made after this manner Take the meal of Lupines the gaul of a Goat or Sheep juice of Lemons and a little Alumen Saccharimum mingle them into the form of a soft oyntment The meal of Lupines being boyled in Vinegar and applied taketh away knobs and kernels or pimples The smoak of the shells being burned drives away gnats and flyes which annoy many houses in Summer Madder great and small BEsides the Garden and Wild Madder there are many other kinds hereof sound out Parkinson makes six kinds of the Rubia major or greater Madder and eight sorts of the Rubia minor or little small Madder Rubia Tinctorum is the general name of the manured Madder in Shops not onely so called from the colour of the root but also from its propety to dye a red colour The names of the other kinds follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Culpepper hath described the Garden or manured Madder therefore I say no more of it Descript 2. Rubia sylvestris wild Madder is very like unto the manured but the stalks are smaller and not so spreading neither are they so rough or hairy the leaves are lesse the flowers are white the root groweth greater but not so red as the Garden-kind Descript 3. Wild Madder with long leaves called Rubia sylvestris longioribus foliis hath divers round jointed stalks two or three foot long or thereabout not so rough as the other wild sort the leaves that stand at the joints are somewhat rough narrower and longer than the other seaven or eight at a distance the flowers are white and stand at the tops of the stalks having four leaves apeece which turn into small round seed like the other the root is red as the former but smaller Descript 4. Smooth-leaved-Madder Rubia levis Taurinensium hath divers round smooth stalks two or three foot long whereon stand leaves not rough at all but smooth larger broader than garden Madder towards the tops of the branches and at the joints with the leaves standing round about the stalks come white flowers consisting of five or six small leaves apeece the roots are smaller then the other and run not far into the ground Descript 5. The 〈◊〉 smooth Candy-Madder called Rubia levis arborescens Cretica It hath a thick short stalk about the thickness of one's singer from whence spring many straight smooth branches with small short leaves standing at distances like the former sorts at the tops of the branches shoot out two or three slender sprigs which bear whitish flowers like those of the ordinary Madder the root is long and reddish and of a bitter harsh tast Descript 6. Sea-Madder Rubia marina hath many square hard and somewhat rough stalks full of joints and spreading round about the root upon the ground the leaves are somewhat rough small and long broadest at the bottom and pointed at the end growing lesser towards the tops the flowers are of a star-like fashion and whitish the root is more red on the outside then within more wooddy and harder then the other Place The first is manured in Gardens and large fields for the profit that is made of it for dyers as well as medicinal uses the second groweth by hedge-sides in many places of Germany and so doth the third which groweth also in many places of our own Land the fourth is found by Turin on the hills of Piemont according as Pena and Lobel say the fift in Candy and the sixt by the Sea-side in Provence and neer Mompelier Time They flower towards the latter end of Summer and the seed of some of them is ripe shortly-after Government and Vertues All the Madders are plants of Mars our Antient and modern writers have controverted each other about the properties of Madder whether it be of an opening or binding quality Galen and Dioscorides say that the root doth open and cleanse the body of thick and tough Flegm Vrine Terms Dead-Child After-Birth Yellow Jaundice Liver Spleen Melancholy Palsie Sciatica that it provoketh Urine bringeth down Womens Courses and expelleth the Dead-child and afterbirth but Dodoneus affirmeth that it is dry and astringent and hath no opening faculty at all but it is sound to have both an opening and an astringent quality even as Rhubarb hath which first opens and then binds and strengthens it turneth the Urine into a red colour as Rhubarb doth colour it yellow it is an excellent remedy for the yellow Jaundies opening obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and cleanseth those parts it abates Melancholy humor it is effectual for those that have the Palsey and Scitica the roots boyled in Ale drunk is good for those that have received any hurts by bruises or falls and for all these purposes the root may be boyled in Wine Ale or Water and some hony or Sugar put thereunto afterwards The seed taken with Vinegar and hony helps swellings and hardness of the Spleen Spleen Freckels Deformity of the skin the decoction of the leaves and branches is good so Women to sit over to drive down their Courses The leaves and roots bâ—â—â—sed and applied cleanse and take away Freckles Morphew white Scurff or any deformity of the skin Small or little Madder Descript 1. Candy-Madder with a spikey head and larger leaves called in Latine Rubia spicata Cretica latiore folio It hath divers square rough slender stalks full of joints from which shoot many branches with four or five small rough leaves compassing them the top-branches end in small long spiked four square heads with many short rough husks set close one above another which send forth small whitish green flowers scarce to be seen after which come small greenish Seed The root is fibrous and wooddy but dyeth every Winter Descript 2. Spiked-Madder with small leaves Rubia spicata angusti-folia This differeth from the former in that
is good to be given to Children for the worms Liver Spleen Vrine Griping in the Guts Inflamations Stone Wounds Lask Vomiting Worms Sea-spiked Quick Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts hereof whose names shall severally follow before their Descriptions Descript 1. Sea-spiked quick grass or dogs grass Gramen caninum geniculatum maritimum spicatum this Sea grass hath divers joynted stalks about a foot high with hard leaves thereon long and like the other quick grass the spiked heads are much shorter and harder than the common kind the root is full of joynts and creepeth under ground like it Descript 2. Sea quick grass Gramen caninum vulgare Canariae simile This other grass is a slenderer lanker and harder grass than the ordinary quick grass and of a blewish green colour and differeth not in any thing else but there are two other differing sorts hereof the one in the roots which at the several joynts as it runneth doth shoot up the like stalks of leaves and spiked tufts and will be sometimes twenty foot in length with many of these tufts of stalks and leaves at them the other in the spikes which will have two rowes or orders in them Descript 3. Sea quick grass with long roots Gramen caninum alterum maritimum longius radicatum this long rooted Sea grass differeth little from the former either in the hard leaves or in the running roots but that they spread more and instead of spiked heads at the tops of the stalks this hath chaffie heads among the leaves Descript 4. Sea-spiked quick grass of Mompelier Gramen caninum maritimum spicatum Monspeliense this French Sea-grass hath slender woody roots with few fibres thereat from whence rise divers trayling stalks a foot or more high with sundry joynts and branches at them and short narrow reed-like leaves at the tops whereof grow spiked heads of three inches long apiece of a darkish Ash-colour Place and Time The three first are found on our Sea-coasts especially in Kent and the fourth about Mompelier and Narbone near the Sea Coasts they are in flower and seed towards the end of Summer Government and Vertues These are under the same Planetary regiment as the ordinary Quick grass of the Land and the roots hereof are held as effectual to all the effects and purposes that the ordinary sort serveth for only this hath been observed that Cattel will not feed on these of the Sea because of their hardness roughness and sharpness Rattle Red and yellow Kinds Names OF this we shall describe two sorts the one called common red Rattle pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris the other yellow Rattle or Coxcomb pedicularis sive crista galli lutea it is also called Fistularia of the hollowness of the stalks and Coxcomb because the flowers as some think do stand like a Cocks comb at the tops of the stalks it is also called Rattle grass and Louse-wort Descript 1. Common red Rattle Pedicularis pratensis rubra vulgaris this hath sundry reddish hollow stalks and sometimes green rising from the roots lying for the most part on the ground yet some growing more upright with sundry small reddish or greenish leaves set on both sides of a middle rib finely dented about the edges the flowers stand at the tops of the stalks and branches of a fine purplish red colour like small gaping hoods after which come small blackish flat seeds in small husks which lying loose therein will rattle with shaking the root consisteth of small whitish strings with some fibres thereat Descript 2. Yellow Rattle or Coxcomb Pedicularis sive crista galli lutea The common yellow Rattle hath seldome above one round green stalk rising from the root about half a yard or two foot high and with but few branches thereon having two long and somewhat broad leaves set at a joynt deeply dented or cut in the edges resembling therein the Crests or Combe of a Cock broadest next to the stalk and smaller to the end the flowers grow at the tops of the stalks with some shorter leaves with them being hooded after the same manner that the red ones are but of a fair yellow colour in most or else in some paler and in some more white the seed is contained in large husks and with lying loose in them will rattle when they are ripe the root is small and slender and dyeth every Winter Place and Time Some of both these kinds grow in Meadows and Woods generally througâ— out our Land where they are rather an annoyance than of any good use for Cattel They are in flower from Midsummer till after August sometimes Government and Vertues These Plants are Saturnine of a cold and drying property the red Rattle is good to heal up Fistula's and hollow Ulcers and to stay the flux of humours to them and also the abundance of womens courses Fistula's Vlcers Courses or any other flux of blood to be boyled in harsh or red wine and drunk The yellow Rattle is also held to be good for those that are troubled with a Cough or dimness of Sight Cough Dimness of Sight if the herb being boyled with Beans and some honey put thereto be drunk or dropped into the eyes The whole seed being put into the eyes doth draw forth any skin film or dimness from the sight without trouble or pain Sweet or Aromatical-Reed Kinds and Names THere is one sort called Calamus Aromaticus Mathioli Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed a second called Calamus Aromaticus Syriacus vel Arabicus suppositivus the supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical-Reed and the third the true Acorus of Dioscorides or sweet smelling Reed called in shops Calamus Aromaticus and likewise Acorus verus sive Calamus officinarum Descript 1. Mathiolus his Aromatical-Reed This groweth with an upright tall stalk set full of joints of certain spaces up to the top not hollow but stuffed full of a white spongeous pith of a gummy taste somewhat bitter and of the bigness of a mans finger and at every one of them a long narrow leaf of a dark green brown colour smelling very sweet differing therein from all other kinds of Reeds on the tops whereof groweth a bushy or Featherlike pannicle like unto those of the common Reed the root is knobby with divers heads thereat whereby it increaseth and shooteth forth new heads of leaves smelling also very sweet having a little binding taste and sharp withal Descript 2. The supposed true Syrian or Arabian Aromatical Reed riseth up from a thick root three or four inches long big at the head and small at the bottom with one and sometimes more stalks two Cubits high being straight round smooth and easie to break into splinters full of joints and about a fingers thickness hollow and spongy within of a whitish yellow colour the stalk is divided into other branches and they again into other smaller ones two usually set together at a joint with two leaves under them likewise very like unto the leaves of
Lysimachia the Willow-herb or Loose-strife but lesser being an inch broad and an inch and an half long compassing the stalk at the bottom with sundry veins running all the length of them from the joints rise long stalks bearing sundry yellow small flowers made of leaves like also unto Lysimachia with a small Pointel in the middle after which follow small blackish long heads or Seed-Vessels pointed at the end and having in them small blackish seed the stalk hath little or no scent yet not unpleasant as Alpinus saith being bitter with a little Acrimony therein but Bauhinus saith it is of an Aromatical tast and very bitter Descript 3. The sweet smelling Reed or Calamus officinarum or Acorus verus hath many flags long and narrow fresh green leaves two foot long a peece or more yet oftentimes somewhat brownish at the bottom the one rising or growing out of the side of the other in the same manner that other flags or flower-De-luces grow which are thin on both sides and ridged or thickest in the middest the longest for the most part standing in the midst and some of them as it were curled or playted towards the ends or tops of them smelling very sweet aswel when they are green and fresh as when they are dried and so kept a long time which do so abide in a Garden a long time as though it never did nor never would bear flower the leaves every year dying down to the ground and shooting out fresh every Spring but after three or four years abiding in a place without removing besides the leaves it shooteth forth not any stalk as other Flower-de-luces do but a narrow long leaf by it self flat like unto the other leaves especially from the middle thereof upwards but from the bottome to the middle it is flat-like at which place cometh forth one long round head very seldom two in form and bigness like unto the Catkin or Aglet of the Hazelnut-tree growing upright and of the length and thickness of ones finger or rather bigger set with several small lines or divisions like unto a green Pine-Apple of a purplish green colour for the most part out of which bunches shoot forth small pale whitish flowers consisting of four small leaves a peece without so good a scent as the leaves falling quickly away and not yeelding any seed The root is thick and long lying under the upper face of the ground shooting forward and with small roots or suckers on all sides like unto the Garden Valerian whitish on the outside or greenish if it lye above the ground and more pale or whitish on the inside with many joints thereabouts and whereat it hath or doth shoot forth long thick fibres underneath whereby it taketh strong hold in the ground of a firm or fast substance yet not hard or wooddy but easie to be cut of a sweet scent and somewhat bitter tast Place and Time The first is said by Mathiolus and others to grow in India Syria and Judea the dry stalks of the second are said to grow at the foot of Mount Libanus in Syria not far from Tripoli in the wet grounds there The third in sundry moist places in Aegypt and by the lake Gennesareth in Judea and in divers places of Syria and Arabia The other Calamus of the shops or true Acorus groweth in many places of Turk y in moist grounds from whence the largest roots the firmest whitest and sweetest are brought unto us it groweth also in Russia and those places thereabouts in great plenty Mr. Morgan hath of it growing in the physick-Garden at Westminster and he himself told me that he was informed by some that they had found it growing in moist grounds in Yorkshire and the Northern parts of England Government and Vertues These Reeds are under the dominion of Venus of a temperate quality The Calamus of Dioscoâ—ides he saith hath these properties it provoketh Urine and boyled with Grass roots and smallage it helpeth those that have the Dropsie Vrine Dropsie it fortifieth the Reins and is good against the Strangury or pissing by drops and is also profitable for those that have the Rupture Reins strangury Rupture or are broken Bellied It provoketh Womens Termes or Courses either drunk or applied to the place the fumes of it taken through a Tobacco-pipe either by it self or with some dryed Turpentine cureth them that have a Cough Termes Cough it is put into bathes for Women to sit in as also in Glisters to ease Pains Pains eased It is used in mollifying Oyles and Plaisters that serve to ripen hard Imposthumes Imposthumes as also for the sweet scent thereof Galen saith it being of a temperature moderate between heat and cold and somewhat Astringent and having a very little Acrimony it is profitably used among other things that help the Liver Liver and Stomack Stomack doth gently provoke Urine and is used with other things in fomentaions for the Mother Mother when it is troubled with inflamations and gently to move the Courses Courses Dioscorides saith that the sweet flag it good to provoke Urine Vrine if the decoction thereof be drunk It helpeth to ease pains in the Sides Sides Liver Liver and Breast Breast as also to ease the Griping pains of the Chollick Chollick and Cramp Cramp and is good against Ruptures It wastes the Spleen Spleen helps the Strangury strangury and Bitings of Venemous Creatures Serpents It is also good in Baths for Women to sit in for distempers of the Womb. Womb The juice dropped into the Eyes Eyes dryeth Rheums Rheums therein and cleareth the sight taking away all filmes Filmes that may hurt them The Root is of much use in all Antidotes against Venome and Poison or infection it is a good remedy against a stinking Breath Stinking Breath to take the Root fasting every Morning for some time together The hot fumes of the decoction made in Water and taken in at the Mouth thorow a funnel are Excellent good to help those that are troubled with a Cough Cough a dram of the powder of the Roots with asmuch Cinnamon taken in a draught of Wormwood Wine is singular good to comfort and strengthen a cold weak Stomack Cold Weak stomack the decoction thereof drunk is good against Convulsions Convulsions or Cramps Cramps and for falls Falls and inward Bruises Bruises an Oxymel or surrup made hereof in this manner is wonderful effectual for all cold Spleens Spleen and cold Livers Liver Take of the Roots of Acorus one pound wash and pick them clean then bruise them and steep them for three days in Vinegar after which time let them be boyled together to the Consumption of the one half of the Vinegar which being strained forth set to the fire again putting thereto as much Hony as is sufficient to make it into a syrrup an ounce
and among the flowers which are whiter spreading forth into many branches and consisting of five or six small white leaves a peece hardly to be discerned from the white threds which are in the middle after which come brownish three square seed the Root groweth in time to be very great with divers and sundry great spreading branches of a dark brownish or reddish colour on the outside and with a pale yellow thin skin under it which covereth the inner substance or Root which rind and skin being pared away the root appeareth of so fresh and lively a colour with fresh coloured Veins running thorow it that the cheifest of that Rubarb brought us from the Indies doth not excell it which Root being carefully dryed will hold his colour almost aswel as when it is fresh Descript 4. The true Rubarb and Rhapontick of China and of the shops Rhabarbarum ponticum genuinum officinarum The form of the root is somewhat great round and long for the most part yet there are smaller and shorter peeces that come together the colour on the outside is not all alike for some is of better colour and sounder than other the best is firm and heavy not spongy or light somewhat brown but fresh on the outside without many blackish spots with fresh coloured veins running thorow it bitter in tast and somewhat Aromatical in smell especially if it be fresh and causing the spittle to be yellow being a little chewed in the Mouth The True Rhapontick brought to us with the Rubarbe is only the lesser and longer peeces of the Root of the true Rubarb Descript 5. The broader Elecampane leafed Rubarb Rhaponticum Enuliae folio latiore This hath divers leaves rising from the root somewhat large and long but not so large as the leaves of Elecampane greenish on the upper-side and greyish or woolly underneath every one standing on his own stalk pointed at the end and dented about the edges from amongst which riseth up a reasonable big round stalk about half a yard or a foot high bearing at the top thereof one great scaly head consisting of very broad and loose or open brown scales like a small Artichoke head at first but that the scales are much more open The flower standeth in the middle and is composed of many blewish red or purple thrums very pleasant to behold after which come blackish round and long seed the Root is somewhat long and thick blackish on the outside and of a deadish colour on the inside And hath formerly been used for Rha Ponticum Descript 6. The narrower Elecampane leafed Rhubarbe Rhaponticum alterum angustifolium This differeth not much from the last but onely in the leaves which are a little narrower and longer then it and a little unevenly waved on the edges the head flowers are alike but a little larger and so is the Root Place and Time Tragus saith that the first groweth naturally about Lausanna in Savoy but onely in Gardens with us The second groweth upon the hills not far from Caria in Germany as also neer Friburg in Switzerland and on the Mountains in Austria The third as is reported was natural in Thracia and from some seeds thereof it hath been planted both in England and other Countries The fourth groweth chiefly in China and Cataga and in the Mountains of Persia The fifth groweth on Mount Baldus neer Verona in Italy and upon the Hills in Switzerland and in some craggy places in Savoy All these sorts of Rhubarbe do grow with us in our Gardens and do flower about the beginning or middle of June and the Seed is ripe in July The Roots that are to be dryed and kept all the year following are not to be taken up before the stalk and leaves be quite withered and gone which will be about the middle or end of October Government and Vertues Culpepper with a great deal of foolish non-sense assigns all these plants to the Government of Mars But I say that they more properly are under the particular influence of Jupiter the leaves of these kinds of Docks do a little mollifie and loosen the Belly being boyled in Broth and taken but the Roots have a more opening and purging quality in them and some more or lesse then others according to their quality The round-leafed Rubarb is stronger in operation than the Garden-Patience or Moncks Rubarb but this last is of Excellent use in dyet drinks and decoctions to purge the Liver and cleanse the Blood Liver Blood Tragus saith that a dram of the dryed Roots of Moncks Rubarb with a scruple of Ginger made into powder and taken fasting in warm Broth purgeth Choler and Flegm Choler Flegm downward very gently the seed thereof contrariwise doth bind the Belly and helpeth to stay any sort of Lask or Bloody-flux The distilled Water of the leaves is used with good successe to heal Scabs and foul ulcerous Sores Lask Bloody-Flux Scabs Sores and to allay the inflamations of them the juice of the leaves or Roots or the decoction of them in Vinegar is a most effectual remedy to heal foul-Scabs and Running-Sores The round-leafed or bastard-Rubarb hath all the same properties but more effectual and is also good against the stinging of Scorpions as Dioscorides saith the decoction thereof in Vinegar dropped into the Ears Scorpions pain in the Eares taketh away the paines thereof and gargled in the Mouth taketh away the pains of the Tooth-ach Tooth-ach and being drunk healeth the Jaundice the Seed thereof taken helpeth the gnawing and Griping pains in the Stomack Jaundice gripings in stomach and taketh away the loathing thereof unto Meat which cometh by vicious sharp humors which are gathered together at the Mouth of the Stomack the Root thereof helpeth the ruggedness of the nails Rugged Nails and being boyled in wine it helpeth the Kings-Evil Swellings of the Throat and kernels Kernels of the Ears being swollen and it helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone provoketh Urine and helps the dimness of the sight The Roots of this bastard Rubarb are of good use in diet-drinks which are opening and purging or in Ale or Beer prepared for opening the Liver cleansing the blood and to allay the heat thereof The properties of the round leafed Dock or English Rubarb are the same with the former but much more effectual and hath all the virtues of the Indian Rubarb but only is not so purgative but being taken in a double quantity it worketh almost in an equal quality without bitterness or Astriction The true Indian Rubarbe doth excellently and safely purge the body of Choler and Flegm Flegm Choler either taken it self in powder in a draught of White-wine or steeped therein all night and taken fasting or mixed among other purgers cleansing the Stomack Stomack Liver and Spleen Liver Spleen and the Blood opening Obstructions Obstructions and helping those griefs that come thereof as the Jaundies Jaundies Dropsie
cleanse the body of the watry humours of the dropsie the second sort is used to the same purposes of the last little is said but being alike in form it may be so likewise in quality Sarsaparilla THis is reckoned amongst the sorts of prickly bindweeds of which there are two sorts and this Sarsaparilla brought from the West-Indies makes the third kind Their names with their Descriptions severally follow Descript 1. Prickly Bindweed with red berries called in Latine Smilax aspera fructu rubro This groweth up with many branches wherewith it windeth about trees and other things set with many crooked pricks or thorns like a bramble all the whole length bending this way and that in a seemly proportion at every joynt it boweth or bendeth it self having somewhat a broad and long leaf thereat standing upon a long foot-stalk and is broad at the bottom with two forked round ends and then groweth narrower unto the point The middle rib on the backside of most of them having many small thorns or pricks and also about the edges The lowest being the largest and growing smaller up to the top smooth and of a fair green colour and sometimes spotted with white spots at the joynts with the leaves also come forth clasping tendrels like as a Vine hath whereby it winds it self the flowers stand at the tops of the branches at three or four joynts many breaking forth in a cluster which are white composed of six leaves a piece star-fashion and sweet in scent after which come the fruit which are red berries when they are ripe of the bigness of Asparagus berries or small grapes and in some lesser wherein are contained sometime two or three hard black stones like also unto those of Asparagus the root is slender white and long in hard dry grounds not spreading far but in the looser and moister places running down into the ground a pretty way with divers knots and joynts thereat and sundry long roots running from thence Descript 2. Prickly Bindweed with black berries Smilax aspera fructu nigro This other prickly bindweed groweth like the former his branches being joynted in like manner with thorns on them but nothing so many climbing like the former the leaves are somewhat like it but not having those forked ends at the bottom of every leaf but almost wholly round and broad at the bottom of a darker green colour also seldome having any thorns or pricks either on the back or edges of the leaves with tendrels like a Vine also the flowers come forth in the same manner and are Star-fashion consisting of six leaves like the other of an incarnate or blush-colour with a round red umbone in the middle of every one which is the beginning of the berry which when it is ripe will be black being more sappy or fleshy than the other with stones or kernels within them like unto it the roots hereof are bigger and fuller than the former for the most part and spreading further under the ground Descript 3. Sarsaparilla of America Smilax aspera Peruana The Sarsaparilla that cometh from America into Spain hath been seen fresh even the whole plant and hath been verified in all things to resemble the prickly Bindweed and in nothing different from it But certainly the Plant of Sarsaparilla that groweth in Peru and the West-Indies is a peculiar kind of it self differing from the Smilax aspera as Mechoacan doth from our Briony This doth wind it self about Poles or any thing else it can lay hold on to climb on the branches have crooked prickles growing on them as the Smilax aspera hath but fewer and not so sharp it hath very green leaves like those of Bindweed but longer and cornered like Ivy-leaves ending in a long point the flowers are said to be very great and white every one as big as a middle-sized dish which opening in the morning fadeth at night which occasioned the Spaniards to call the whole Plant Buenas noches that is goodnight Gerard describes the Sarsaparilla to be the roots of a shrub having leaves like Ivy but saith nothing of the flowers or fruit which it may be believed was not then discovered Although I have set down the usual and common names of these three kinds in their Descriptions both English and Latine yet because the word Smilax is among writers diversly taken and with various and several significations it is not improper here by the way to make some exposition thereof It is taken for two sorts of trees and it is also taken for three kinds of herbs Theophrastus maketh mention of one of the trees in lib. 3. cap. 16. of his History calling it Smilax Arcadum a soft Oak which is like unto an Ilex or Holly-oak The other which the Grecians call Smilax simply is called in Latine Taxus the Yew-tree The Herbs are first this here expressed aswell as the other more gentle sort which is the common Bindweed this the Grecians call Smilax Tracheia Smilax Aspera as they call the other Smilaxlia Smilax Laevis sive levis And the other the Grecians call Smilax Kepaia Smilax hortensis which is Dolichus or Phaseolus the French or Kidney Bean. Place and Time The two first grow in Italy Spain and other the warmer Countries whether Continent or Isles throughout Europe and Asia The third is found onely in the West-Indies The best is said to come from the Honduras others not so good from other places as the fertility or barrenness of the ground and the temperature of the Climate affordeth it and it hath ripe berries early in hot Countries Government and Virtues These are all plants of Mars of an healing quality howsoever used Diascorides saith that both leaves and berries being drunk before or after any deadly poyson is taken are a remedy there-against Remedy against deadly poyson serving to expell it It is said also saith he that if to a new born Child some of the juice of the berries hereof be given it shall not be hurt by Poyson ever after it is given as an antidote against all sorts of Poison and Venemous things Venomous things if a dozen or sixteen of the berries being beaten to powder be given in wine it procureth Urine Procureth Vrine cleanseth the Reins inward Inflamations Heat and Redness in the Eyes Dryeth Humours and washeth away when it is stopped the distilled water of the flowers being drunk worketh the same effect and cleanseth the Reins asswageth inward inflamations If the eyes be washed therewith it taketh away all heat and redness in them And if the Sores of the Legs be washed therewith it healeth them throughly The true Sarsaparilla is held generally not to heat but rather to dry the humours yet it is easily perceived that it doth not only dry the humours but wasteth them away by a secret and hidden property therein much whereof is performed by sweating which it performeth very effectually It is much used in many kinds of diseases as in all cold
round ruggish root covered with a crested or as it were a joynted Bark come forth out of knots three or five broad leavs like unto those of the Maple or Plane-tree standing on small blackish long stalks and are divided in three or five parts full of veins dented about the edges and pointed at the ends Descript 3. Red Storax called in latine Styrax rubra This hath formerly by some been thought to be the bark of some kind of tree that went under that name of Storax But Serapio and Avicen divide Storax into liquida and sicca by liquida meaning the pure gum flowing from the tree and not that liquida which we have now adays by that name and by the sicca the feces of the expressed oyl from the fruit but Calumita is now taken of some to be red Storax Place and Time The first groweth in Provence of France in Italy Candy Greece and some hither parts of Turkey where it yieldeth not gum but in Syria Silicia Pamphylia Cyprus and those hotter countreys it groweth much It flowreth in the Spring yielding fruit in September Government and Virtues This is a solar Plant there is no part of this tree in use with us but the gum that issueth out of it It is of temperature hot in the second degree and dry in the first it heateth mollifieth and digesteth and is good for Coughs Catarrhes Coughs Catarrhes Rheums Courses Mothr Loosen the belly Afterbirth Ears cold Aches Lameness distillations of Rheums and hoarsness It provokes womens courses and mollifieth the hardness and contractions of the Mother Pills made with it and a little Turpentine and taken gently looseneth the belly it resisteth cold poysons used as a Pesâ—ary it draweth down the courses and Afterbirth dropped into the ears it helpeth the singings and noise in them applyed to the hips joynts or shoulders afflicted with cold Aches it resolveth and comforteth much and is good to be put into baths for lameness of the joynts and weariness by travail It is also good to be put with white Frankincense to perfume those that have Catarrhes Rheums and defluxions from the head to the nose eyes Rheums head Nose Eyes or other parts by casting it on quick coals and holding their heads over the smoak and to air their night-caps therewith It dissolveth hard Tumors in any part as them about the throat and the Kings-evil Tumors Kings-Evil Sumach Descript Names Sumach groweth like a bushy shrub about the height of a man bringing forth divers branches upon which grow long soft hairy or velvet leaves with a red stem or sinew in the middle the which upon every side hath six or seven little leaves standing one against another nipt about the edges like the leavs of Egrimony the flowers grow among the leaves upon long stems or footstalks clustring together like the Cats-tails or blowings of the Nut-tree of a white green colour the seed is flat and red growing in round berries clustring together like grapes This Plant is called in Latine Rhus and in English Sumach and Coriers Sumach The seed is called in Latine Rhus obsoniorum and in English Meat-Sumach and Sauce Sumach Place and Time It groweth in Spain and other hot Countreys It is seldome found in this countrey but in the gardens of diligent Herbarists where it flowers in July Government and Vertues This is a Saturnine Plant of temperature cold in the second degree and dry in the third of a strong binding faculty the leavs have the same power that Acacia hath they stop the Lask and womens flowers with all other issues of blood Lask-flowers Bloody Issues Bloody-Flux Watry Ears to be first boyled in water and wine and drunken the same decoction stoppeth the Lask and bloody flux to be used as a Glyster or to bathe in the decoction It also dryeth up the running water and filth of the ears when it is dropped into the same and maketh the hair black being washed therein The seed of Sumach being eaten in sawces with meat doth stop all Fluxes of the belly with the bloody-flux and the whites Bloody-Flux Whites The same layd upon new bruises and green wounds defendeth them from hurts inflamations Swellings and Exulcerations the same pounded with Oaken-coals and layd to the hemerrhoids healeth and dryeth up the same The decoction of the leaves worketh the same effect Swallow-wort Kinds Names OF this there are three kinds The usual latine names of Swallow-wort is Asclepias or Vnice toxicum their distinct names follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Swallow-wort with white flowers Asclepias flore albo This Swallow-wort riseth up with divers slender weak stalks to be two or three foot long not easie to break scarce able to stand upright and therefore for the most part doth lean or lie down upon the ground if it find not any thing to sustain it and sometimes will twine themselues about it whereon are set two leaves at the joynts being somewhat broad and long-pointed at the end of a dark green colour and smooth at the edges At the joynts with the leavs towards the tops of the stalks and at the tops themselves come forth divers small white flowers consisting of five pointed leaves apeece of an heavy sweet scent after which come small long pods thick above and less and less to the point wherein lie small flat brown seed wrapped in a great deal of white silken down which when the pod is ripe it openeth of it self and sheddeth both seed and cotton upon the ground if it be not carefully gathered The roots are a great Bush of many strings fastned together at the head smelling somewhat strong while they are fresh and green but more pleasant when they are dryed both leavs and stalks perish every winter and rise anew in the spring of the year when the stalks at their first springing are blackish brown Descript 2. Swallow-wort with black flowers called in Latine Asclepias flore nigro This groweth in the same manner that the former doth having his long slender rough branches rise to a greater height than the other and twining themselves about whatsoever standeth next unto them having such like dark green leavs set by couples but somewhat smaller than they the flowers likewise stand in the same fashion but somewhat smaller also and of a dark purplish colour that it seemeth to be black and are scarce discerned unless one look very earnestly upon them after which come more plentifully than the other such like Cods with a white silver down and seeds in them as the former the roots hereof are not so bushy as the other neither smell so strong neither doth it give any milky but a watry juice when it is broken Descript 3. Swallow-wort of Candy Asclepias Cretica This riseth up in the same fashion that the former do with many slender flexible green branches with leavs set at the joynts on either side as the white kind hath and are very like unto them but somewhat of a
are taken from it which are the weakest before the last and strongest riseth but not the last which is the Empireuma and serveth even as the vinegar it self doth but with more force and as the vehiculum wherein the tincture and spirits of simple medicines are reserved Vinum Wine To shew all the several colours scents strengths ages and tastes of simple wines were an Herculean labour and so it is likewise to shew you all the sorts of compound or artificial wines which are as infinite as the herbs roots seeds or other parts of them are and take their names from the several Ingredients that compound them I shall therefore set down the particular properties of Wine it self both as it is mediclnable and nourishing Wine taken moderately by such as are of a middle age or well in years or are of a cold and dry Constitution it increaseth blood Increaseth blood Nourisheth Appetite Vrine Raw humors Vital Spirits Leanness Fears Cares Heaviness Stomach Liver and nourisheth much procureth an appetite and helpeth to digest being taken at meat it provoketh Urine and driveth forth raw humours thereby strengthneth the vital spirits and procureth a good colour in them that want it or are macilent drawing to a Consumption so as it be not accompanyed with a Feaver It expelleth fears cares and heaviness It doth comfort all cold infirmities of the stomach Liver Spleen and womb and helpeth windy swellings in the body and general evi dispositions thereof green-sickness and the dropsie Virtues of the true Spirit of wine The pure spirit of wine must be taken but very little in quantity and that not of it self but in some wine or other liquor for fear of inflaming the bloud and spirits and chiefly upon symptoms and passions of the heart And then taken with respect and good consideration it worketh much more effectual than the wine it self doth to all the purposes aforesaid in comforting and nourishing the natural heat in elder persons given strength and quickness to the senses Strength Senses Memory Brain Faintings Heart Wind Poysons Headach Toothach Sores it repaireth memory and the cold and moist diseases of the brain helpeth the fainting and trembling of the heart warmeth a cold and moist stomach helpeth digestion expelleth wind from the sides and belly and all cold poysons Being outwardly applyed to the Temples it easeth the pains in the head and cold distillations and the Toothach being gargled a little and cicatrizeth old Sores These Spirits of wine aswel as the wine it self serve as a vehiculum to draw out the tincture of divers things The Lees of wine being hardned is called Tartarum Tartar or Argall and that which is taken from the whitest wines is accounted the principal best for any medicine but the red sort serveth Goldsmiths and others to pollish silver and the Dyers to set their dye The best white Tartar is either given of it self simply being made into powder and taken the quantity of a dram at a time in some convenient drink or broath for some time together in Dropsies or evil dispositions of the body Dropsies Vrine Siege Watry humors to expell both by urine and siege those wheyish and watry humors thereof and applyed to womens breasts that are over-full of milk doth dry it up But the Cremor tartari which is the purer part thereof and especially if it be made as clear as crystal doth work more safely and more effectually than the crude Tartar can do but this Tartar that is calcined until it be white hath then put off all purging quality and hath gained a Caustick burning property that will corrode and eat away-scabbed nails and warts and soon be brought into a salt and will also soon be resolved into an oyl or liquor if it be layd upon a stone or hung up in a linnen bag in a moist cellar to be received as it dropped down it is of admirable use in chymical operations There is another kind of oyl of Tartar of a far milder temper and is more like unto clear water which is very effectual to cleanse the skin from all manner of spots scars morphew Spots Scarrs Morphew Hair or discolourings whatsoever and maketh it smooth and amiable and will help to bring on hair on the places decayed The wild vines are in property no less cooling but more binding than the branches of the manured stayeth the lask and spitting of blood Lask Spitting of blood Stomach Sore mouths Privy parts Eyes provoking Urine and is pleasing to a hot stomach or that loatheth meat the leaves hereof are as good for Lotions as the other for sores in the mouth privy parts and Fundament The ashes of the branches are likewise used to clear the Eye-sight of filmes and what else may offend them to cleanse sores and Ulcers and to take away the over-growing skins of the nayls of the hands or toes Indian wheat Maiz. Frumentùm Indicum vel Turcicum vulgare Kinds THere are two sorts hereof the greater and the lesser Descript 1. The usual Indian or Turkey wheat This Indian wheat shooteth from the root which is thick and bushy sundry strong and tall stalks about eight foot high as thick as a mans wrist if it grow in any rank ground full of great joynts with a white pyth in the middle of them the leaves are long twice as large as of Millet at the tops come forth many feather-like spâ—igs bending downwards like unto the top of Millet which are either white or yellow or blew as the grains in the ears will prove which fall away nothing appearing after them but while they are in slower at the joynts of the stalks with the leaves from within two or three of the lower joynts up towards the tops come forth the ears one at a joynt which have many leaves folded over them smallest at the top with a small long bush of threads or hairs hanging down at the ends which when they are ripe are to be cut off which folds of leaves being taken away the head appeareth much like unto a long Cone or Pine-apple set with six or eight or ten rowes of Cornes orderly and closely set together each being almost as big as a pease not fully round but flat on the sides that joyn one to another of the same colour on the outside as the bloomings were hard but brittle and easie to be broken or ground with white meal within them somewhat dry and not clammy in the chewing Descript 2. The other lesser Indian wheat Frumentum Indicum alterum sive minus This other Indian wheat is like the former both in stalks and leaves but not half so high or great the ears likewise are not half so big of as differing colours as it but they do not grow at the joynts of the stalks as the other but at the tops following the flowers which maketh a special difference between them the grain it self is being made into bread not of that nourishing quality as the
with salt causeth a sweet breath The Roots stamped with oyle and applied taketh away black and blew marks that come of bruses or stripes Bruises cureth and dissolveth the Kings Evil and all hard swellings and botches Kings-Evill Botches the parts being anointed or plastered therewith The same root made into powder and made into a plaister with the oyle of Ireos and wax doth asswage and cure the Sciatica or hip-Gout Sciatica the same boyled with pomgranat-pills and vinegar doth cure the hemorroids and taketh away warts and superfluities about the fundamentor elswhere Warts They also mundifie and cleanse the breast dissolve and ripen tough flegm Flegm and are profitable against an old cough coming of cold Cough being taken with honey in manner of an Electuary or Lohoch They provoke Urine Vrine clense the Kidneys and bladder break and drive forth the stone Stone provoke womens flowers Flowers and expulse the secondine and dead child Secondine Being chewed in the mouth they abate the tooth-ach Toothach and draw superfluous humors from the brain The liquor or Gum of Laserpitium especially of Cyrene which is called in our shops Gummi Benzni or Benzoin dissolved in water drunk driveth away hoarsness Hoarsness that cometh suddenly being supt up with a rear egg it cureth the Cough Cough taken in some broth is good against the Pleurisie Pleurisie It is good against Cramps and shrinking of the sinewes Cramp Sinews to be taken the quantity of a scruple and taken with Pepper and mirrhe it provoketh the Terms Terms and driveth forth the afterbirth and dead fruit afterbirth to be taken with hony vinegar or surrup of vinegar it is good against the falling sicknes Falling-Sickness it is good against the flux of the belly Flux coming from weakness of the stomack being taken with raisins It driveth away the shaking fits of Agues being drunken with wine pepper and Frankincense ther is an electuary made thereof with pepper Ginger and the leaves of Rue pounded together with hony which is called Antidotum ex succo Cyreniaco which is a singular medecine against Quartain Agues Agues It is good against the bitings of Venemous beasts Venemous bittings poisonous shots of darts or Arrows Shots bitings of mad dogs being taken inwardly and applied outwardly upon the wounds It quickneth the sight and taketh away the haw or web in the Eyes web in the Eyes at the first coming if it be applied upon them with hony being wrapped with Frankincense in a fine linnen Cloth and holden upon the Tâ—eth it cureth the Ach of the same Toothach the decoction thereof with figs and hysop boyled together in water and holden or kept in the mouth worketh the same effect Being applied with hony it stayeth the Vvula falling down Vvula and with hydromel or mede it cureth the Squinance being gargled with it It breaketh pestilential Impostums and Carbuncles Carbuncle being laid thereto with Rue Nitre and hony after the same manner it takes away Corns Corns being applied with Coperass and Verdigrease it cureth the disease in the Nostrills called Polypus Polypus and all scurvy manginess Manginess Against kybed heeles Kibed heeles first bath the heeles with wine and then anoint the kibes with this gum boyled in oyle The stinking gum call Assa foetida is good for all the purposes aforesaid but it is not so good as the Laser of Cyrene but it is very good to smell unto or to be laid upon the Navel against the choking or rising up of the Mother Benzoin is used for all the purposes aforesaid instead of the sweet Laser but it is supposed not to be the true Laser Cyreniacum but the gum of a certain tree to us unknown B. Balsom-tree or the true Balsome Names THe Arabians call it Balessau The Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Balsamum the liquor they call Opobalsamum the berries or fruit of the tree Carpobalsamum and the sprigs or young branches therof Xylobalsamum Descript The balsome or balm tree in the most natural places where it groweth is never very great seldome about eight or nine foot high and in some places much lower with divers small and straight slender branches issuing from thence of a brownish red colour especially the younger twigs covered with a double bark the red outermost and a green one under it which are of a very fragrant smell and of an Aromatical quick taste somewhat Astringent and gummy cleaving to the fingers the wood under the bark is white and as insipid as any other wood on these branches come forth sparsedly without order many stalks of winged leaves somwhat like unto those of the Mastick-tree the lowest and those that first come forth consisting but of three leaves others of five or seaven leaves and seldome above which are set by couples the lowest smallest the next bigger the end-one largest of all of a pale green colour smelling and tasting somwhat like the bark of the branches somewhat clammy also and abide on the bushes all the year the flowers are many and small standing by three together on small stalks at the ends of the branches made of six small white leaves a peece after which follow small brownish hard berries little bigger than Juniper-berries small at both ends crested on the sides and very like unto the berries of the Turpentine tree of a very sharp sent having a yellow hony-like substance in them somwhat bitter but Aromatical in tast and biting on the tongue like the Opobalsamum from the body hereof being cut there issueth forth a liquor which sometimes floweth without scarifying of a thick whitish colour at the first which afterwards groweth cleer and is somewhat thicker than oyle in Summer of so sharp a peircing sent that it will pierce the Nostrills of those that smell thereunto almost like unto oyle of spike but as it groweth older so it groweth thicker and not so quick in the smell and in the colour becoming yellow like honey or brown thick Turpentine as it groweth old Place and Time The most reputed natural places where this tree hath been known to grow both in these and former dayes are Arabia Foelix about Mecha and Medina and a small village neer them called Bedrumia the hills valleys and sandy grounds about them and the Country of the Sabeans adjoyning next thereunto and from thence transplanted into India and Aegypt It likewise grew on the hills of Gilead And it is reported that the Queen of Sheba brought of the Balsome-trees to Solomon as the richest of her Presents who caused them to be planted in Orchards in the Valley of Jericho where they flourished and were tended and yearly pruned untill they together with the Vineyards in that Country were destroyed by that monster of mankind the savage Bestial Turk It flowereth in the spring and
seed is long and hairy the root is small and hard Place The true Daucus groweth in Candy in stony places that stand in the Sun the other groweth in this Country about the borders of Fields in stony places and by the way sides Time This last kind floureth in July and August Government and Vertues The seeds of Daucus are hot and dry almost unto the third degree under the influence of Mercury the seed beaten and drunk in Wine is good against the Strangury Strangury and painful making of Water Gravel and Stone it provokes Urine Vrine and Womens Courses and expells the dead child and Secondine Courses Secondine It asswageth the tormenting pains of Gripings in the Guts Gripings-Cuts dissolveth Wind Wind cureth the Cholick and is good to ripen an old Cough Cholick Cough The same drunk in Wine is good against bitings of Venemous beasts and being pounded and applied it scattereth cold swellings and dissolveth Tumors The root of Daucus of Candy drunk in Wine stoppeth the Lask Lask and is a soveraign remedy against Venom and Poyson Poyson Cedar-tree Names THere be two kinds hereof the great Cedar-tree and the small Cedar out of the great tree issueth a white Rozen called in Latine Cedria and Liquor Cedrinus or Liquor of Cedar Descript The great Cedar groweth very tall high great and thick the bark from the foot of the stem unto the first branches is rough and from thence up to the top it is smooth and plain of a dark blew colour out of which there droppeth white Rozen of his own kind which is moist odoriferous or of a sweet smell and by the heat of the Sun it becomes dry and hard the Limbs and branches of this tree be long and parted into many other small branches standing directly or right one against another like those of the Firre-tree the said branches be garnished with many small little leaves thick short and having a sweet savor the fruit is like that of the Firre-tree but that it is greater thicker harder the whole tree groweth strait up like the Firre-tree Of their smaller Cedar there be two kinds the first kind of small Cedar is much like to Juniper but somwhat smaller the stem is crooked or writhed and covered with a rough bark the fruit is round berries like Juniper berries but somewhat greater of colour at the first green then yellow and at last reddish of an indifferent good tast The second kind of small Cedar groweth not high but remaineth small and low like the other the leaves of this are not prickly but somewhat round and mossey at the ends almost like the leaves of Tamarisk and Savin the fruit of this kind beareth also round berries which at first are green afterwards yellow and when they are ripe they become reddish and are bitter in tast Place The great Cedar groweth in Africa and Syria and upon the Mountains of Libanus Amanus and Taurus The second kind groweth in Phoenicia and in certain places of Italy in Calabria and also in Languedoc The third kind groweth in Lycia and is found in certain parts of France as in Provence and Languedoc Time The great Cedar perfecteth his fruit in two years and it is ever without fruit which is ripe at the beginning of Winter the small Cedar-trees be alwayes green and Loaden with fruit having at all times upon them fruit both ripe and unripe as hath Juniper Government and Vertues The great Cedar is under the dominion of the Sun the smaller of Mars the Cedar is hot and dry in the third degree the Rozen or Liquor Cedria which runneth forth of the great Cedar tree is hot and dry almost in the fourth degree and of subtil parts The fruit of the small Cedar is also hot and dry but more moderatly Cedria that is the liquor or Gum of Cedar swageth the Tooth-ach Toothach being put into the hollowness of the same also it cleareth the sight and taketh away spots and scars of the Eyes Eyes Spots Scars being laid thereon the same dropped into the Ears with Vinegar killeth the Worms of the same Worms and with the Wine of the decoction of hysop it cureth the noise and ringing in the Eares Eares and makes the Hearing good Hearing The old Egyptians did use in times past to preserve their dead bodies with this Cedria for it keepeth the same whole and preserveth them from corruption but it consumeth and corrupteth living flesh it killeth Lice Lice Mothes Moths Worms and all such Vermine so that they will not come near it The Fruit of the Cedar is good to be eaten against the Strangury strangury it provokes Urine and brings down Womens Courses Courses Cistus Kinds and Names OF this there be two sorts the first called Cistus non Ladanisera because it beareth no Ladanum the other is a plant of a woody substance upon which is found that fat liquor or gum called Ladanum The first kind which yeeldeth no Ladanum is also of two sorts viz. the Male and Female The Male beareth red flowers the Female white in all things else the one is like the other out of the root of the Female Cistus is drawn forth a sap or liquor called Hippocistis The second kind of Cistus is called also Ledum and Ladum the fat Liquor which is gathered from it is called Ladanum and in shops Lapdanum Descript The first kind of Cistus which beareth no Ladanum hath round hairy stalks and stems with knobbed joints and full of branches the leaves be roundish and covered with a cotton or soft hair not much unlike the leaves of Sage but shorter and rounder the flowers grow at the tops of the stalks of the fashion of a single Rose whereof the Male kind is of colour red and the Female white at the last they change into knops or huskes wherein the seed is contained There is found a certain excrescence or out-growing about the root of this plant which is of colour sometimes yellow sometimes white and sometimes green out of which is artificially drawn a certain juice which in shops is called Hypocistis and is used in medicine The second kind of Cistus which is also called Ledon is a plant of a woody substance growing like a little tree or shrub with soft leaves in figure not much unlike the others but longer and browner upon the leaves of this plant is found that fat substance called Ladanum which is found growing upon the leaves about Midsommer and the hotest daies Place The first kind of Cistus groweth in Italy Cicily Candy Cyprus Languedoc and other hot Countries in rough and untilled places The second kind groweth also in Crete Cyprus and Languedoc Time The first kind of Cistus floureth in June and sometimes sooner The second kind of Cistus floureth and bringeth forth seed in the spring time and immediately after the leaves fall off and about Midsommer there cometh new leaves again upon
boyled doth quicken and clear the sight if it be often dropped into the Eyes the seed used in glisters asswageth the griping pains of the Belly and of the Matrix or Mother and cureth the Wounds of the Bowels and Matrix Linseed mingled with hony and taken as an electuary oâ— lohoch cleanseth the Breast and appeaseth the Cough and taken with Raisins is good for such as are fallen into Consumption or Hecktick-feavers The seed of Lin taken into the body alone or in too great quantity is bad for the Stomack ingenders much Wind and hinders digestion of meats Flea-bane Names IT is called in Latine Psyllium by which name it is known in shops it is also Herba pulicaris and in English Fleabane and Flea-wort Descript Fleabane hath long narrow hairy leaves amongst which spring up round and tender branches set full of like leaves but smaller and garnished at the top with little long round spiked knops like Eares with greenish flowers or blossoms which do afterwards change into brown or shining seeds in proportion colour and quantity like unto Flea's Place Dioscorides saith It groweth in fields and desart places In this Country it groweth not but in some Gardens where it is sown and where it is once sown it groweth continually afterwards of its own sowing or shedding of seed Time It floureth and seedeth in July and August Government and Vertues Flea-wort is a Saturnine plant the seed therof which is chiefly used in medicine is cold in the second degree and temperate in moisture and dryness as Galen and Serapio write The seed of Fleabane steeped in water and boyled and the decoction thereof being drunken purgeth downwards addust and Cholerick humors It asswageth pain and stacketh the inflamation and heat of the entrails or Bowels and is good against hot Feavers or burning Agues Choler inflamed Bowels Fevers Agues and in all inward heats and against Drought and Thirst The same seed grossely bruised but not broken being parched at the fire is good against the Bloudy-Flux Bloudy Flux vehement Lask especially when they proceed of taking strong and violent medicines the Fleabane-seed mingled with oyle of Roses and Vinegar or water is good to be applied unto hot griefs of the joints Aposthumes or swelling behind the Ears and other hot Swellings Hot pains Ears Swellings Also it is good against the Head-ach Head-ach the same applied pultis-wise with Vinegar is good against the going out of the Navel and the bursting Navel bursting of young Children The water wherein the seed hath been steeped is good to be laid on the burning heat called St. Anthonies-fire St. Anthonies fire and to all hot Swellings Some are of opinion that if this plant when in it is green be strowed in any House it driveth away Fleas so that they will not come near it Too much of Fleabane-seed taken inwardly is very hurtful to the body and ingendereth coldness and stiffness dulness of the Spirits and heaviness of the heart If any one find himself distempered by taking of it a speedy remedy is to provoke Vomiting and afterwards drink of the best old Wine that can be gotten either by it self or boyled in Wormwood or Wine mingled with a little hony Firre-tree Names THis Tree is called in Latine Abies and the Dutch call it Mastboom because of the usefulness of the Timber in serving to make Masts for Ships the liquid or clear Rozen that runneth out of the bark of the young trees is called Terebinthina Veneta and in English Venice Turpentine Descript The Firre-tree is great high and long and continueth always green it groweth much higher than the Pine and Pitch-trees The stem is very even and straight plain beneath and without joints but upwards it groweth with joints and knops upon which joints grow the branches bearing leaves almost like Ewe but smaller longer and sharper at the points or ends of a blewish green colour the fruit is like to the Pine-apple but smaller and narrower not hanging down as the Pine-apples do but growing straight upward from out of the bark of the young Firre-tree is gathered a fair liquid Rozen clear and shining which in tast is bitter and Aromatical in tast almost like to Citron pills or Lemon pills condited There is also found upon this tree a Rozen or white Gum like as there is found upon the Pine and Pitch-trees which is sold for the right Frankincense and so is vulgarly esteemed Place The Firre-tree groweth upon high Mountains in Greece Italy Spain and France But in divers places of Germany and most in Norway from whence the Timber thereof is plentifully brought hither and is very serviceable in building Government and Vertues The Firre-tree is under the rule of Mars The bark and dry Gum or Rozen of this Tree are in temperature and vertues like the bark and Rozen of the Pine-tree but these of the Firre-tree are of a more Acrimonious and cleansing quality The liquid or clear Rozen is hot and dry in the second degree having a sharpe quality and is of a digestive or cleansing nature the liquid Rozen of the Firre-tree taken about the waight of half an ounce looseth the Belly driveth forth hot and Cholerick humors it doth cleanse and mundifie the Kidneys Choler Kidneys and Bladder provoketh Urine Bladder Vrine driveth forth the Stone and Gravel Stone Gravel and is good to be taken oftentimes of such as are troubled with the Gout the same taken with Nutmeg and Sugar to the quantity of a Nut helpeth the Strangury Gout strangury and is very good against excoriations or going off of the skin or Flux of the Secret parts Secret parts It is also very excellent for all fresh and green Wounds especially Wounds of the Head Wounds Head for it cleanseth and healeth very much Galangall Names IT is called in Latine Cyperus Descript This plant hath long hard and narrow leaves the stalk is triangled about a foot and an half long at the top whereof grow little leaves among which are spiky tops and white seed the root is long interlaced one within another having many threds of a brown colour and sweet savor Place Galangall as Dioscorides writeth groweth in low and moist grounds but is not common in this Country but as it is planted in some Gardens Time This herb bringeth forth his spikey top and seed with leaves in June and July Government and Vertues It is a plant of Mars the root is hot and dry in the thrid degree The roots of Galangal boyled and the decoction drunk provoketh Urine Vrine bringeth down Womens Flowers driveth forth the Stone Stone and is good for those who are troubled with the Dropsie Terms the same is also good against the Cough Cough the stingings of Scorpions Scorpions and bitings of Venemous beasts being taken after the same manner It is also good against the hardness of the Mother Mother remedieth Stoppings and
almost woody and cutteth blackish within so that it may be very probable that the one sort with the soft white root hath flag-like-leaves and seed also like Iris. The other root which is more slender and black yet of the same fashion may be that which beareth seed like leaves described by Lobel rather to be preserved than for ordinary use with us but both sorts are preserved best while they are fresh and green and the black sort aswel also after it is dryed by steeping it and then boyling it to make it tender but the white sort will not so well serve to be preserved or candied after it is dryed but is best being preserved green Government and Vertues Ginger is a Solar plant it is of excellent use to warm a cold Stomack to help Digestion Digestion and to dissolve Wind Wind both in the Stomack Stomack and Bowels the Indians eat it in Sallads while it is fresh the root being sliced and put among the herbes and it helpeth to mollifie and loosen the Belly while it is moist much of the heat which it hath being dry being abated by the moisture the Candied or Green-ginger is most comfortable to the Stomack and is profitable for all the purposes aforesaid Guiacum Names IT is also called Lignum Sanctum Lignum-vitae and Lignum Indicum Descript The Guiacum that groweth in some parts of the Indies is better than in others yet the wood of all is hard firm close and heavy so that it will sink in water more than Ebony and not swim it is of an hot sharp and resinous tast somewhat burning in the Throat the blacker or browner is better then the yellow being in a manner all heart the yellow being as it were but the sap The tree groweth great with a reasonable thick greenish gummy bark the tree is also spread with sundry Armes and branches great and small and on them winged leaves set by couples one against another which are small thick hard and almost round with divers veines in them and continue always green at the joints and ends of the branches come forth many flowers standing in a tuft together every one on a long footstalk consisting of six small whitish yellow leaves with some threds in the middle which turn into flat yellowish gristly fruit of the fashion of the seed Vessel of Shepherds purse it yeeldeth forth also a gum or Rozen of a dark colour which will easily burn Government and Virtues Mars ownes this tree boâ—h the wood bark and gum are hot and dry and are used for all cold flegmarick and windy humors Flegm Wind Catharrhs Lungs Coughs Teeth and are effectual against the Epilepsie Falling-s ckness Catharrhs Rheums and cold distillations on the Lungs or other parts Coâ—ghs and Consumptions the Gout and all Joint-aches and many other like diseases and to make the Teeth white and firm if they be often washed with the decoction thereof but most particularly it is appropriated to the cure of the French-pox French-Pox by drinking the decoction of the wood and bark which by reason of its heat and dryness is somewhat rough in the Throat it may be mollified by adding Licoris and other proper qualifications There may an extract be made thereof which is not unpleasant to take and most effectual for the French-Pox which is made in this manner Extractum Ligni Guiaci pro morbo Gallico Take of the chips of Guiacum one ounce bark of the same half an ounce let them stand in digestion in Spirit of Wine 15 days separating it so often until all the strength thereof be extracted then evaporate the Spirit by distillation untill it come to the consistence of hony then take this matter while it is hot and cast it into an earthen pan wherein is cold water and it will forthwith coagulate into a substance like Pitch or Aloes This may be formed into pills of the bigness of Pease whereof may given two or three it is a most excellent Sudorifick and Bezo artick remedy which will so mundifie and cleanse the body and whole Mass of blood as that it will suffer no corruption to abide therein it doth wonderfully provoke Sweat and Urine and takes down the great Bellies and Swelling legs of hydropick bodies The dose is from two pills to three or at the most in strong bodies to four drinking after it some water of Carduus Benedictus The ordinary diet drink for the French Disease is thus prepared Take of Guiacum four ounces of the bark thereof one ounce and an half Sarsa-parilla eight ounces Sassafras one ounce China-root sliced three ounces let them stand in infusion hot in Spring water three gallons by the space of 24 hours adding towards the end Raisins of the Sun stoned half a pound Harts-horn and shavings of Ivory of each one ounce fine Cinnamon one ounce and an half Coriander-seeds prepared one ounce strain it and let the patient drink it for an ordinary drink forbearing all other Although this be appropriated chiefly to the cure of the French-Pox yet it is effectual and profitable to be used for the Scurvy Dropsie Jaundies Gout Leprosie old putrified Agues and Feavers and indeed all Chronick diseases An excellent purging Ale may also be here with made effectual not onely for all the purposes before mentioned but for Coughs Consumptions shortness of Breath Tissicks it restores natural heat helps the Memory quickens the senses helps Cramps and Palsies stiches and pains that come of Wind and is good to prevent Miscarriages and opens obstructions of the Liver Reins and Bladder It is thus made Take Guiacum 6 ounces bark of the same one ounce and an half Sarsaparilla half a pound China-root and Sassafras each two ounces Lignum Aloes Coriander-seed Annise and sweet Fennel-seeds of each three ounces Citron peeles two ounces leaves of Colts-foot Ceterach Maiden-hair Sage Rue Harts-tongue Scabious Egremony each one handful Sena and Carthamum-seeds each 6 ounces Rhubarb Hermodactils each four ounces Liquorice three ounces infuse all in 8 gallons of Ale and let it work together adding of the juice of Garden-Scurvy-grasse Water-Cresses and Brook-lime each a pint with two Orenges sliced after it is three daies old drink it a pint in the morning and asmuch at four a Clock in the Afternoon Gum Arabick Names Descript THis Gum cometh forth of a tree called Acacia seu Spina Aegyptia vera the true Acacia Aegyptian thorn or Binding-bean-tree which yeeldeth of its own accord a bright Gum in small curled peeces and greater round peeces if it be wounded which is called Gummi Arabicum and Gum Arabick which being broken is clear pure white and transparent some are very long and large peeces and cleer and transparent but reddish this gum will dissolve of it self in waters and serveth as a glew to stiffen bind and fasten things it distilleth and droppeth out of the tree in bigger or lesser peeces as either issuing forth or helped by slitting the bark and giving it
Correction of Spurge Laurel Lay the leaves or berries in steep in Vinegar a whole day then dry it and make it into powder adding to it Annise or Fennel seed gum Tragant and Mastick and so give it together with some cooling water as of Endive Succory or Orenges it will perform its operation without troubling or inflaming the Throat nor the inward parts indian-Indian-leaf Names IT is called by the Indians Cadegi Indi that is Folium Indum It is called also Malabathrum and of the East-Indians Tamala patra Descript They are broad leaves with three ribs onely in them a little pointed at the ends which have been brought unto us but in small quantity and amongst them some leaves on their branches two usually at a joint tasting somewhat hot like unto bay-leaves and the bark of the branches hath the same tast amongst these leaves sometimes hath been found a small fruit like unto an Acorn in the cup which is probably the fruit of the tree and gathered with the leaves Government and Vertues It is Solar The vertues are to provoke Urine to warm and strengthen the Stomack and it maketh the Breath sweet It is good to be put into Cordial and Stomachical compositions It resisteth poison and Venome and the infusion thereof in Wine warm helpeth inflamations and redness of the Eyes being bathed therewith Lentills Kinds and Names THey are called Lens and Lenticula in Latine In some Countries of England where they sow them for meat for their Cattel they call them Tills There are found three sorts hereof 1. Lens Major the greater Lentill 2. Lens Minor the lesser Lentil And 3. Lens Maculata the spotted Lentil Descript 1. The greater Lentil groweth about two foot long with many hard yet slender and weak branches from whence at several places shoot forth long stalks of small winged leaves many on each side of a middle rib which middle rib endeth in a small clasper between the leaves and the stalks come the flowers which are small of a sad reddish purplish colour almost like the flowers of Vetches they stand for the most part two at the end of a long footstalk after the flowers are gone there succeed small short flat Cods wherein is flat round smooth seed of a pale yellowish Ash-colour the root is fibrous and dyeth every winter 2. The lesser lentill differeth from the former onely in this that the stalks leaves and seed is lesser the flowers are more pale and the seeds are whiter The third differs not much from the last but the seed which is blackish is spotted with blacker spots Place and Time The two first in parts beyond the Seas are sown in manured Fields and so they are in some Countries in England especially the smaller sort The greater doth seldome come to maturity with us if the season be not very mild and dry the spotted kind hath been growing wild in Portugal Government and Virtues They are under the dominion of Saturn of a mean temperature between heat and cold yet they are dry in the second degree according to Galen they are somewhat astringent and bind the body especially the outer skin It is of contrary qualities for the decoction thereof doth not bind but loosen the body therfore those that would have it bind let them cast away the first water and use the second which stoppeth Lasks and strengtheneth the Stomack Lasks Stomack and inward parts Lentils husked lose the strength of binding but nourish more than those that are not husked but Galen saith that to cat much of the broth of Lentils breedeth Cankers and Leprosie being grosse and thick meat It breedes the Melancholy humor but is good for moist and watry bodies but forbidden to those that are of a dry constitution It is also hurtful to the fight but is convenient for Women that have their Courses in too much abundance the decoction thereof applied with Wheat flower easeth the Gout Terms Gout and used with hony it closeth up the Lips of Wounds and cleanseth foul sores being boyled with Vinegar it dissolveth knots Sores knots and kernels Kernels and a decoction made thereof with Quinces Melilot and a little Rose-water put thereto it helpeth the Inflamation of the Eyes and Fundament But for the chaps of the Fundament let it be boyled with dryed Roses and Pomgranate rindes adding a little hony unto it And so it is good for creeping Cankers adding some Sea water unto it and for Wheals and running watry sores St. Anthonies-fire Kibes and for the curdling of Milk in Womens Breasts And a decoction there of with Rose leaves and Quinces is a good lotion for Ulcers in the Mouth Privy parts or Fundament Cankers Kibes St. Anthonies-fire Mouth Privy parts Fundament Lentisk or Mastick-tree Names IT is called in Latine Lentiscus and the gum or Rozen resina Lentiscina and Mastiche and Mastix in English Mastick Descript The Mastick or Lentisk-tree groweth like a tree if it be suffered to grow up and often it riseth but as a shrub the body and branches are of a reddish colour tough and gentle having their ends bending somewhat downwards whereon do grow winged dark green leaves consisting of four couples standing one against another of the bigness of the large Myrtle leaf with a reddish Circle about their edges and somewhat reddish veins on the underside smelling sweet and always continuing green the flowers grow in clusters at the joints with the leaves being small and of a pale purplish green colour after them come small blackish berries of the bigness of a Pepper-corn with a hard black shell under the outer skin and a white kernel within it beareth also certain hornes with a cleer liquor in them which turneth into small flies that fly away It yeeldeth also a clear white gum in small drops when the stocks are cut in sundry places which is carefully gathered and preserved Place The Lentisk-tree groweth in Provence of France and also in divers places of Italy and Candy and in many places of Greece but yeeldeth little gum there But especially in the Isle of Chio now called Sio Time It floureth in April and the berries are ripe in September It is pruned and manured with as great care and pains as others do their Vines it goeth beyond them in the profit of the Gum. Government and Vertues The Lentisk-tree is under the influence of Jupiter It is of temperature moderately hot but both root and branch bark leaf fruit and Gum are of a binding quality and do stop all Fluxes Fluxes and spitting of Blood Blood strengthens a weak Stomack Stomack and helps falling down of the Mother Mother or Fundament The decoction healeth up hollow sores Fundament sores sodereth broken bones Bones fasteneth loose Teeth Loose-teeth Itch and stayeth creeping Sores they being fomented therewith The oyl that is pressed out of the berries helpeth the Itch Leprosie Leprosie and Scabbs Scabbs both in Men and Beasts
much larger and many more standing together the wood is whitish and smooth but not so smooth hard and close as our common Maple is Place This great Maple or falsly-called-Sycomore groweth no where wild or natural in this Kingdom but is onely planted before houses or in walks for the shadowes sake but groweth naturally in many places in Germany c. This as-well as our Wood-Maple flowers about the middle of April and the fruit is ripe in the end of September Government and Vertues It is a tree of Jupiter and is nevertheless scarcely made any mention of for its medicinal virtues but onely Pliny saith that the root of the Maple being bruised is with very great effect applied unto those that have obstructions or other pains of the Liver and Spleen but the root made into powder and given the quantity of a dram in Wine often is more effectual The Mealy-tree Names IT is called in Latine Viburnum and it is also called the Way-fairing-tree and by Mr. Parkinson from the pliantness of the twigs and branches the Pliant Mealy-tree Descript This tree hath from a small body rising to the height of a hedge-tree or bush covered with a dark greyish bark sundry small short but very tough and pliant branches of a fingers thickness whose bark is smooth and whitish whereon grow broad leaves like Elm-leaves but long and hoary rough thick white like meal and a little hairy set by Couples and finely dented about the edges at the ends of the branches stand large tufts of white flowers which turn into large branches of round and flat seed like unto Lentils but greater green at the first and afterwards and black when they are ripe The branches hereof are so tough and strong that they serve for bands to tye bundles or any other thing or to make fast gates of the Fields better than withy or any other Place It groweth as a hedge-bush and is often cut and plashed by Country-men to spread on the hedges in length and is very frequently found in Kent and in many other places of this Land Place It flowreth about the end of May and the fruit is ripe in September Government and Vertues It is a plant of Saturn the leaves thereof have a harsh binding quality and are good to strengthen and fasten Loose-teeth Loose-teeth the decoction of the leaves hereof and of Olive leaves together in Vinegar and Water is excellent good to wash the Mouth and Throat that are swelled by sharp Rhumes falling into them and is good to set the Palate of the Mouth or Vvula in the right place and to stay Rheums that fall upon the Jawes the kernels of the fruit hereof taken before they be ripe dryed and made into powder and drunk do stay the Looseness of the belly and all other fluxes Of the roots being steeped under ground and then boyled and beaten a long time afterwards is made Bird-lime to catch small birds with all The leaves boyled in Lye and the Head or Haires washed therewith doth keep them from falling and make the Hairs black Mechoacan and Jalap Kinds and Names THe Mechoacan of Peru is called also in Latine Brionia alba Peruana sive Mechoacan There is also another kind called Wild Mechoacan and a third sort called black Mechoacan or Jalap Descript 1. The Mechoacan of Peru that hath grown in these parts sendeth forth divers dark greyish long branches winding themselves about poles that are set for them or any other things that are next unto them whereon do grow fair broad leaves pointed at the ends of a dark green colour thin and hard in handling seeming so dry as if they had no juice in them the flowers are many standing in long clusters of a sullen yellow colour in the Indies as Monardus saith and as large as an Orenge-flower with an Umbone in the middle which afterwards cometh to be the fruit which when it is ripe is as big as an Hazel-nut divided by a thin skin in the middle in each side whereof lye two black seeds of the bigness of Pease of a dark whitish colour in the warmer Countryes of Europe but not with us yeelding berries and seed but not so large the root groweth to be as large as any Briony-root being not bitter or loathsome to tast as it is but rather without either tast or smell having many circles in it as may be discerned in the dry roots and may easily be brought into powder Descript 2. Wild Mechoacan called in Latine Mechoacan Sylvestris is altogether like the other both in manner of growing with branches leaves flowers and roots but in every particular lesser and the root wherein is the chiefest difference being sharp and loathsome procureth Vomiting and troubling the Stomack when it is taken asmuch as any ordinary Briony Descript 3. Mechoacan nigricans sive Jalopium black Mechoacan or Jalap The dryed roots of this plant are brought as a Merchandize unto us in England It cometh to us in small thin peeces some greater some smaller yet nothing so large as the greater but rather as the smaller peeces of Mechoacan of a brownish black Colour somewhat more solid compact and Gummy for out of it will rise a black Gum being laid on a burning Coal and of no unpleasant tast but sticking a little in the Teeth when it is chewed Place Mechoacan groweth beyond Mexico in the Province of Mechoacan but since hath been plentifully brought from the main Land of Nicaragna and Quito The wild Mechoacan was brought from the Promontory of St. Helen which is on the same Continent with Nicaragna The last is brought from a place in the Indies called Chelapa or Calapa from whence it obtained the name of Jalap Time They flower in the months of July and August some earlier or later than others as their original is from colder or hotter Climates and do seed soon after where they give any Government and Vertues The Mechoacans are plants of Mars the Mechoacan of Peru is a familiar Medicine used by many It is given to all Ages young and old and to young Children and Women with child without any harm or danger as also at all times of the year for being without any evil taste or smell it may be the better taken of the most delicate and tender stomachs that loath all other medicines It is most usually being made into powder taken in wine or the Root may be boyled in a little broth or wine and so taken The Dose in powder is from half a dram to a whole dram or a dram and an half or two drams as there is cause and according to the Age and strength of the Patient It purgeth cholerick and Flegmatick gross viscous and putrid humours whatsoever Choler Flegm putrid humours Liver Spleen Dropsie Jaundice Wind Pains in the head Bladder Reins Vrine Cholick Mother shortness of breath Cough French Pox. as also the yellow waterish humours of the Dropsie with much ease and facility It cleanseth the Liver
large but not so large as the first as sweet as the other and the flowers white like the rest and sweet likewise and the fruit black Descript 4. Strange narrow-leaved Myrtle Myrtus angusti-folia exotica This groweth in all parts like unto the second but that the leaf is smaller narrower small pointed and of a darker green colour the flowers are alike and so is the fruit but greater and rounder having crooked white seeds in them like the other Descript 5. The Spanish wild Myrtle Myrtus Boetica sylvestris This wild myrtle groweth not so high nor so thick with leaves as the former sorts but hath slender and brittle branches with broader leaves than the last set more thinly on both sides than the rest and of a dark green colour the flowers are like the rest and the fruit is round standing on long footstalks between the leaves green at first then whitish and blackish when they are ripe full of pleasant sweetish juice and with some astriction to the Taste Descript 6. Small white myrtle Myrtus domestica minutissimis foliis fructu albo This groweth reasonable tall with slender reddish branches thick bushing together and thick-set with very small leavs narrowest of any other and sharp-pointed and somewhat dark green also the flowers are white like the rest and so is the fruit but of a whitish colour tending to a little blush and so abide not turning blackish Descript 7. The small and pointed Myrtle Myrtus minor acuto folio This riseth not so high as the third or ordinary broad-leaved sort but groweth fuller of branches and thick-set with small fine and green and almost shining round leaves a little pointed at the ends abiding always green as all the sorts of myrtles doe which with the flowers are sweet and bear black berries but they never bear in our cold Countrey Descript 8. Box-leaved myrtle Myrtus minor rotundiore folio This groweth in all points like the last but that the leaves being as small and fresh green thick are rounder at the ends very like unto the small box-leaves and beareth flowers as sparingly Descript 9. Double-flowred myrtle Myrtus flore pleno Of the greater kind of Myrtle there hath been of late nursed up one in the Gardens of the Curious with as double flowers as the double Feaverfew coming forth of a round reddish husk continuing flowring at the least three months and each flower a fortnight and is not over-tender to be kept yet will not endure the frosts Place and Time Many sorts of myrtles are found generally upon all the Sea-Coasts of Spain and in divers other hot Countries but generally in hot Countreys they must be defended from the cold but in the warm Countreys they must have shadow also for they love both shadow from the heat and moisture in hot Countreys Government and Vertues The Myrtles are under the dominion of Mercury and is indued with contrary qualities as Galen saith for it hath a very cold quality in it and a certain thinne warm offence also and therefore it dryeth and bindeth powerfull The dryed leaves are more drying and binding than the fresh which being beaten and boyled in water is good to drink against Catarrhes falling to any part of the body and doth help Fluxes of the belly and stomach moist Ulcers Catarrhes Belly Stomach Vlcers Cods Swelled Arteries Broken bones fretting and creeping Sores Swellings and heat of the Cods Imposthumes of the Fundament and St. Anthonies fire The decoction of the leaves is good for the resolution of the Arteries and Joynts and their weakness to sit in as a Bath and helps to consolidate bones that be broken or out of joynt that will hardly be cured It helpeth the soreness of the nayls and the rising of the skin about them if the powder of the dryed leaves be layd thereon The juice of the leaves worketh the same effects whether taken out of the fresh leaves or from the dry by infusing them in red wine and is safely used where there is any need of binding medicines or to heal Ulcers of the mouth or privy parts The same also helps watring eyes and those that begin to have a film or skin to grow over them which will take away the sight Watry eyes Passion Heart Spitting blood Venemous Beasts stinking breath old Vlcers Blanes Wheals Matrix Piles The seed is good against trembling and passion of the heart spitting of bloud and the bloody Flux It stops the Terms and the Whites helpeth the stinging of Scorpions and biting of venemous Creatures and of the Spider called Phalangium and the danger of Mushrooms being drunk in wine it helps a stinking breath and being warmed with wine it helps old Ulcers that are hard to cure It provokes Urine helps diseases of the bladder binds the belly and stayes the Flux of humours Blanes Wheals and breakings out of the skin the decoction of them is good for women to sit over that are troubled with the falling down of the Matrix and for the falling down of the Fundament and the Piles The excrescence called Myrtidanum is of greater force to dry and bind than either leaf juice or seed Myrobolans Kinds Names THere are brought unto us five sorts of fruits of the Myrobolan well known in the Apothecaries Shops called Cytrine Chebul Bellericks Emblick Indian They are also called Indian purging Plums Descript 1. The yellow Myrobolan or purging Indian Plum Myrobolanus Citrina Is said to grow on a Tree as great as a Plum Tree having many branches and winged leaves like unto the leaves of the Service-tree The fruit is for the most part as big as an ordinary Plum somewhat long having many fair ridges on the outside especially when it is dryed shewing it to be five-square though round of a yellower colour on the outside than any of the rest The flesh or substance being of a reasonable thickness the stone is white thick and hard to break with ridges also therein and a very small long kernell in the middle of an astringent taste as the dryed fruit is but much more than it Descript 2. The purple Myrobolan or purging Indian plum Myrobolanus chebula This kind groweth in bigness and branches like a Plum-tree having leaves like unto Peach leaves the fruit thereof is the greatest and longest of all the five sorts of a blackish purple colour on the outside while it is fresh which it holdeth in the dry fruit which as saith Mathiolus is the best being five square as the former of a more thick and fleshy substance than any of the other and with the smallest stone in it not so hard to break as the former but with the smallest kernell therein Descript 3. The round Myrobolan or purging Indian plum Myrobolanus Bellerica This is like the rest for growth but hath leaves like the Bay tree but of a paler green colour the fruit is of a mean bigness round and smooth yet in many being as it were three square of a pale rushetish
part coming together each of them upon a short foot stalk at the tops of the stalks grow the fruit which are round and reddish of the bigness of a plum and full of seed within Descript 5. Apples-of-Love of a greater middle and lesser size Poma amoris majora media minora These sorts do all resemble one another in their branches leaves yellow flowers and red berries or fruit Place and Time The first is natural in Spain the second in Aegypt and Syria and those Eastern Countreys the third is supposed to be brought out of Ethiopia and the back parts of Barbary the fourth is found in shadowy places upon the Appenine Mountains the last is natural in Egypt Syria Arabia and those parts The three first do flower in August their fruit not coming to perfection with us but the other sorts ripen well if the Summer be not too cold Government and Vertues The first sort of these are Plants of Saturn and as Avicen saith are very hurtfull yet being first boyled in fat broath they are eaten as a pleasant Junket with vinegar or salt oyl salt amongst the Genoa's and others and neither breed frensies nor other harm yet though the fresh ones be better yet they which are old are very hurtful for by their bitterness they are accounted hot and dry in the second degree and do ingender Melancholy Leprosie Cancers and the Piles the Head-ach and a stinking breath breed obstructions on the Liver and Spleen and change the complexion into a foul black and yellow colour unless they be boyled in vinegar And Fuschius saith that they do superabound in coldness and moisture as do the Cucumbers and Mushrooms yet the beauty of the fruit the delight to the palate and most of all their supposed faculty of inciting to venery do transport a great many especially in Italy and other hot Countreys where they come to their full maturity and proper rellish that they eat them with a great deal of desire and pleasure and therefore prepare and dress them divers ways as some eat them raw as we do Cucumbers some roast them under the embers and others boyl them and then pare and slice them and having strowed flower on them do fry them with oyl or butter and with a little pepper and salt eat them and some keep them in pickle to serve in the winter and Spring but certain it is that they do hardly digest in the Stomach whereby they breed much windiness which probably may cause a provoking to Venery they ingender bad blood and melancholy humours and give little nourishment to the body and that not good The Poma Amoris golden apples or apples of love are under the dominion of Venus they are cold and moist more than any of the former and less offensive these are eaten with great delight and pleasure in hot Countreys but in our Country for want of sufficient heat of the Sun to ripen them they are flashy and insipid and not so fit to be eaten Thorny Apple-bearing Nightshades Kinds and Names THere are recorded two sorts of these viz. The thorny nightshade of Jericho with round apples Solanum spinosum fructu rotundo And Indian apple bearing Nightshade with round leaves solanum pomiferum Indicum folio rotundo Descript 1. The thorny Nightshade of Jericho hath leaves like unto those of the mad Apples of Peru but whiter and softer having many small thorns in the middle rib of every leaf on the under side and on the stalks and branches are divers thorns and purplish flowers at the top of them after which come small apples green before they be ripe changing yellow and brownish afterwards being round and somewhat sweet in smell but as unsavoury or without taste as the former Descript 2. The Indian Apple-bearing Nightshade with round leaves groweth in manner of a shrub or Hedg-bush as Monardus saith of an excellent green colour having small thin round leaves bearing long fruit round at the lower end and flat toward the stalk of a greyish or Ash-colour on the outside and of a pleasant and grateful taste without any Atrimony therein having many small seeds within it Place and Time The first groweth in Syria and Palestine and other Countreys adjacent The second groweth in the Mountains of Peru only but at what time they flower or bear fruit it is not menâ—ioned Government and Virtues These Plants are certainly governed by Mars but the Physical vertues of the first no mention is by any Author made thereof But the second as Monardus saith is in great estimation in the West-Indies both amongst the Spaniards and Indians in that it provoketh Urine expelleth Gravel and the Stone in the kidneys and bladder Gravel Stone It breaketh the stone in the bladder if it be not so hard as that it will yield to the force of no medicine It is said of this that the seed taken in any fit in some proper water for that purpose will by degrees dissolve the stone into small Gravel which after it is expelled forth will again petrifie and grow together into an hard stone Nipplewort Kinds and Names OF this there is some three kinds 1. the ordinary Nipplewort called in Latine Lampsana vulgaris 2. The Nipplewort of Austria called Lampsana papillaris and 3. Wild or wood bastard-Nipplewort Soncho affinis Lampsana Sylvatica And in Prussia as saith Camerarius they call it papillaris Descript 1. The ordinary Nipplewort groweth with many hard upright stalks whereon grow dark green leaves from the bottoms to the tops but the higher the lesser in some places without any dents in the edges and in others with a few uneven jags therein somewhat like a kind of Hanckweed the tops of the Stalks have some small long branches which bear many small starlike yellowish flowers on them which turn into small seed the root is small and fibrous the Plant yieldeth a bitter milk as the Sowthistles do Descript 2. Nipplewort of Austria hath slender smooth and solid stalks not easie to break about two foot high whereon stand without erder somewhat long and narrow leaves broadest in the middle and sharp at the ends waved a little about the edges and compassing them at the bottom yielding a little milk from the upper joynts with the leaves grew forth small firm branches yet a little bending hearing each of them four or five long green husks and in them small purplish flowers of five leaves a piece nicked in at the broad ends with some small threds in the middle which turn into Down and are carried away with the wind the root is small and shreddy and lasteth many years Descript 3. The wild or wood Bastard-Nipplewort is like unto the first sort but with somewhat broader leaves and more store of branches but in flowers and other parts not much different Place and Time The first groweth-common almost every where upon the banks of ditches and borders of fields the second Clusius saith he found in Hungary and Saxony and other
sharp and aromatical is of more effect in medicines and so is the long being more used to be given for Agues to warm the stomach before the coming of the fit thereby to abate the shaking thereof All of them are used against the Quinsie being mixed with honey Quinsie Kernels and taken inwardly aswell as applyed outwardly and disperseth the kernels aswell in the throat as in the other parts of the body Mathiolus writeth of a kind of Pepper which he calleth Piper Aethiopicum brought with other Merchandise from Alexandria into Italy and groweth in long Cods like beans or pease but many cods set together at a place whose grains within them being like Pepper both in form and taste but smaller stick very close to the inside this sort Serapio calleth granum Zelin Monardus also maketh mention of a kind of long Pepper that groweth in all the tract of the Continent of the West-Indies This kind of pepper is half a foot long and of the thickness of a small Rope consisting of many rowes of small grains set close together as in the head of Plantane and is black being ripe and hotter in taste and more aromatical and pleasant than Capsicum and preferred before black Pepper and groweth saith he on high Trees or Plants Guinny Pepper Kinds and Names THere are many sorts hereof found out and brought to our knowledge in these latter dayes more than formerly were one Gregorius de Reggio a Capuchine Fryar maketh mention of a dozen several sorts or varieties at the least in the fruit or Cods though in any thing else very little differing there are likewise some other varieties observed by Clusius and others Descript 1. The most ordinary Guinny Pepper with long husks Capsicum majus vulgatius oblongis siliquis By this you may frame the Description of all the rest the main difference consisting in the form of the fruit whether husks or Cods This Plant riseth up with an upright firm roundstalk with a certain pyth within them about two foot high in our Countrey and not above three foot in the hotter spreading into many branches on all sides even from the very bottome which divide themselves again into other smaller branches at each joynt whereof come forth two long leaves upon short footstalks somewhat bigger than those of Nightshade else very like with divers veins in them not dented about the edges at all and of a very sad green colour the flowers stand severally at the joynts with the leaves very like unto the flowers of Nightshade consisting most usually of five and sometimes of six white small-pointed-leaves standing open like a star with a few yellow threds in the middle after which come the fruit either great or small long or short round or square as the kind is either standing upright or hanging down as their flowers shew themselves either of this or that form in this somewhat great and long about three inches in length thick and round at the stalk and smaller towards the end which is not sharp but round-pointed green at the first but being full ripe of a very deep shining Crimson red colour on the outside which is like a thick skin and white on the inside smelling reasonably well and sweet having many flat yellowish white seeds therein cleaving to certain thin skins within it which are broader at the upper end and smaller at the lower leaving the end or point empty within not reaching so far the which husk but especially the seed being of so hot and fiery a taste that it enflameth and burneth the mouth and throat for a long time after it is chewed almost ready to choak one that taketh much at a time thereof the root is composed of a great Tuft or bush of threds spreading plentifully in the ground and perisheth even in hot Countreys after it hath ripened all its fruit Descript 2. Capsicum minus Brasilianum small round Guinny-pepper This groweth in the same manner as the former doth not differing in any thing but in the leaves which being of the same form are not so great and large and in the fruit which is small and round standing some forthright and some upright but none hanging down each of them upon a long footstalk about the bigness of a Barbery but round and nothing so red and in another sort almost black having such like seeds within them but somewhat smaller no less hot and fiery than the former and abideth the winter-colds no otherwise than the former and seldome beareth ripe fruit in our Countrey Descript 3. The greater round upright Guinny Pepper Capsicum rotundum majus surrectum The chiefest difference in this sort of Guinny-pepper consisteth most in the form of the fruit which standeth upright as the flowers do being great and round like an apple even the greatest of all the sorts that bear round fruit of an excellent red colour when it is ripe like unto a polished Corall Descript 4. The great upright Spire-fashion'd Guinny-Pepper Capsicum erectum pyramidale majus This differeth very little from the first the difference of the fruit is that this standeth upright great below and smaller and smaller to the point which is sharper than in the first of as brave an orient Corall-like colour as the last Descript 5. The lesser upright Spire-fashion'd Guinny-Pepper Capsicum erectum pyramidale minus As the fruit of this sort is lesser by the half than the last and not so sharp or small at the end but somewhat round so the green leaves also are smaller and narrower and the stalk smaller and not growing so high the flowers of this as of all the rest that bear their fruit upright do stand upright also which is a certain rule to know what fruit will be pendulous and what will be upright Descript 6. The least Spire-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum exiguum erectum Pyramidale The form of this is very like the second sort but these are smaller and longer than those of the second sort of an inch long at the least and of a blackish red before they be through-ripe and then as red as the rest This groweth taller fuller of branches and more stored both with flowers and fruit the leaves are of the same dark green colour with the rest Descript 7. The greater upright Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum Cordatum erectum majus This groweth not so high as most of the former having large leaves but not so small at the ends the fruit is not pendulous or hanging downwards with his footstalk but standing upright being somewhat great flattish and as it were bunched out at the upper end next unto the stalk and smaller below short and round-pointed somewhat resembling the form of a mans-Heart as it is intituled Cordatum Descript 8. The lesser upright Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper Capsicum Cordatum erectum minus This doth not differ from the last but in the smallness of the fruit standing also upright but much smaller and shorter Descript 9. Pendulous Heart-fashioned Guinny-Pepper
in the mouth it helpeth a stinking breath it also helps digestion and is good against Melancholy These outer rinds being preserved with Sugar are used as a Junket at Banquets yet they are often used in Cordial Electuaries and preservatives against infection and Melancholy It also helpeth to loose the body and therefore there is a solutive Electuary made therewith called Electuarium de citro solutivum to evacuate the bodies of cold flegmatick Constitutions and may safely be used where Choler is mixed with Flegm The inner white rinde of the fruit is almost unsavoury and without taste and is not used in Physick but being preserved is used at Banquets the sowr juice in the middle is cold and farre surpasseth that of Lemons in the effects although not so sharp in taste it is singular good in all pestilential and burning Feavers to restrain the venome and Infection to suppress the Choler and hot distemper of the blood and to quench thirst and correcteth the ill disposition of the Liver stirreth up an Appetite and refresheth the over-spent and fainting spirits Burning Feavers Choler Thirst Appetite Faint Spirits resisteth drunkenness and helpeth the turnings of the Brain by the hot vapours arising therein which causeth a Frenzy for want of sleep the seed not only equalleth the rind but also surpasseth it in many particulars yet Galen and Avicen contradict one another herein Galen saith that the seed is cold which Mathiolus excuseth with diverting his intent to the juice and Avicen saith it is hot in the first degree and dry in the second the Bark or rynd hot in the first and dry in the end of the second degree the inner white substance between the outer bark and the inner juice hot and moist in the first degree and the sowr juice cold and dry in the third degree These seeds are very effectual to preserve the heart and vital spirits from the poyson of the Scorpion and other venemous creatures as also against the infection of the Plague or Pox or any other contagious disease they kill the worms in the stomach provoke the Terms cause an Abortment and have a digesting and a drying quality fit to dry up and consume moist humours both inwardly in the body and outwardly in any moist or running Ulcers or Sores Heart poyson of Scorpions Plague Pox Worms Terms Moist humours Vlcers Sores and to take away the pains that come after the biting of any venemous Creature The whole fruit or the branches of the trees layd in Presses Chests or Wardrobes keepeth Cloth or silk Garments from Moths or worms and likewise giveth them a good scent Quick-Grass Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these Grasses some growing in the fields and other places of the upland grounds and others near the Sea it is also called Dogs-grass and Gramen Caninum the other several names shall follow in the Descriptions Descript 1. Common quick-grass Gramen caninum vulgare This grass creepeth far about under ground with long white joynted roots and small fibres almost at every joynt very sweet in taste as the rest of the herb is and interlaceing one another from whence shoot forth many fair and long grassie leaves small at the ends and cutting or sharp at the edges the stalks are joynted like Corn with the like leaves on them and a long spiked head with long husks on them and hard rough seed in them Descript 2. Quick grass with a more spread Panickle Gramen caninum longius radicatum paniculatum This differeth very little from the former but in the tuft or panickle which is more spread into branches with shorter and broader husks and in the root which is fuller greater and further-spread Descript 3. The lesser quick-grass with a sparsed tuft Gramen caninum latiore panicula minus This small quick-grass hath slender stalks about half a foot high with many very narrow leaves both below and on the stalks the tuft or panickle at the top is small according to the Plant and spreadeth into sundry parts or branches the root is small and joynted but creepeth not so much and have many more fibres among them than the others have and is a little browner not so white but more sweet Descript 4. Low bending quick grass Gramen caninum arvense This creepeth much under ground but in a differing manner the stalks taking root in divers places and scarce rising a foot high with such like green leaves as the ordinary but shorter the spiked head is bright and sparsed or spread abroad somewhat like the field grass Descript 5. Gramen caninum supinum Monspeliense This differeth very little from the last in any other part thereof than in the panickle or spiked head which is longer and not spread or branched into parts as that is Descript 6. A small sweet grass like Quick-grass Gramen exile tenuifolium Canariae simile sive gramen dulce This small grass hath divers low creeping Branches and rooting at the joynts as the two last having many small and narrow leaves on them much less than they and a small sparsed panickle somewhat like the red dwarf-grass Descript 7. Wall-grass with a creeping root Gramen murorum radice repente this Wall grass from a blackish creeping root springeth forth with many stalks a foot high bending or crooking with a few narrow short leaves on them at whose tops stand small white panickles of an inch and a half long made of many small chaffy husks Place and Time The first is usual and common in divers plow'd Grounds and Gardens where it is often more bold than welcome troubling the Husbandmen as much after the plowing up of some of them as to pull up the rest after the springing and being raked together to burn them as it doth Gardners where it happeneth to weed it out from amongst their trees and Herbs the second and third are more scarce and delight in Sandy and Chalky grounds the three next are likewise found in Fields that have been plowed and do lye Fallow and the last is often found on old decayed Walls in divers places they flourish chiefly in the beginning of Summer Government and Virtues These are Plants of Mercury The root is of temperature cold and dry and hath a little mordacity in it and some tenuity of parts the herb is cold in the first degree and moderate in moisture and dryness but the seed is much more cold and drying of some tenuity of parts and somewhat harsh This quick grass is most medicinable of all other sorts of grasses it is effectual to open obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and the stoppings of Urine the decoction thereof being drunk and to ease the griping pains in the belly and Inflamations and wasteth the excrementitious matter of the Stone in the Bladder and the Ulcers thereof also the root being bruised and applyed doth knit together and consolidate wounds the seed doth more powerfully expell Urine bindeth the belly and stayeth vomiting the distilled water
courses it dryeth up the moisture in Womens wombs and helps conception It is of very good use in Tertian and Quotidian Agues that come of humors or are of long continuance It is thought also to be good in Plague-time to wear some thereof continually about them that the smell thereof may expell the corrupt and evil vapours of the Pestilence It is generally used in all the diseases that come of cold raw thin and corrupt humours the French disease and other of the like foul nature the Indians use the leaves being bruised to heal theit wounds and Sores Saunders Kinds Descript IN our Shops for physical use we have three sorts of Saunders whereof the white and yellow are sweet woods and the yellow is the sweetest the red hath no scent The Saunder-Tree groweth to be as big as a Walnut-tree having fresh green leaves like unto the Mastick-tree and darkish blew flowers the fruit being like unto cherries for the size but without any taste black when they are ripe and quickly falling away the wood it self is without scent as it is said while it is living and fresh and smelleth sweet only when it is dry the white and the yellow woods are so hard to be distinguished before that time that none but those Indians that usually fell those trees do know their difference before-hand and can tell which will prove better than others the chiefest part and smelling sweetest is the heart of the wood they are distinguished by these names Santalum album citrinum rubrum Government and Vertues All the Saunders are under the Solar regiment they are all cooling and cordial and used together in sundry cordial medicines but the white and the yellow are the more cordial and comfortable by reason of their sweetness and the red more cooling and binding which quality neither of the other are without though in a less proportion The red is often used to stay thin rheum Thin Rheum Inflamations Gout Agues Headach Weak and fainting Stomachs hot Agues palpitation of the heart melancholy mirth Sperm Fluxes falling from the head to cool hot Inflamations hot gouts and in hot Agues to cool and temper the heat but the white and yellow are both Cordial and Cephalical applyed with Rosewater to the temples procuring ease in the headach and are singular good for weak and fainting Stomachs through heat and in the hot fits of Agues They are very profitably applyed in fomentations for the stomach spirits and palpitations of the heart which also do comfort and strengthen them and temperate the melancholy humor and procureth Alacrity and mirth which quality is attributed to the yellow more than the white which is used more to stay and bind fluxes of the Sperm in man or woman for which purpose either the powder taken in a real Egge or mixed with other things for that purpose or steeped in red wine and kept in an hot Balneo or hot Embers close stopped all night and strained forth and drunk both in the morning and evening stayeth both the Gonorrhea or running of the Reins in men Gonorrhea Whites abates great breasts in Maids and the whites in women being applyed also to maids and womens great breasts mixed with the juice of Purselan abateth their greatness and represseth their overmuch growing Scamony Descript The true Scamony hath a long root of a dark Ashcolour on the outside and white within and of the bigness of an Arm with a pith in the middle thereof and many fibres thereat which being dryed as saith Mathiolus the pith taken out seemed so like unto the roots of Turbith which are brought to us from the farre remote Eastern parts none knowing what plant it is nor whereunto it is like some thinking it to be the root of Trifolium or Sea Starwort that otherwise it might be thought to be the right Turbith of the Apothecaries shops from whence arise many long round green-branches winding themselves like a bindweed about stakes and trees or any other things that stand next unto it unto a good height without any clasping tendrels like the true or wild Vine from the joints of the branches come forth the leaves every one by it self upon short footstalks somewhat broad at the bottom with two corners next thereunto and some also round and then growing long and narrow to the end being of a fair green-colour and smooth somewhat shining Towards the tops of the branches at the joints with the leaves come forth large whitish bell-flowers with wide open brims and narrow bottoms after which come round heads wherein is contained three or four black-seeds if any part of this plant be broken it yieldeth forth a milk not hot not burning nor bitter yet somewhat unpleasant provoking loathing and almost casting Names It is called Scammonia both in Greek and Latine The dryed Juice which is most in use is called also Scammoniacum in the Druggists and Apothecaries shops as also with most Writers and some call the plant so too When it is prepared that is baked in a Quince under the Embers or in an oven or any other way it is called Diagridium Place and Time Scamony groweth in Syria and the farther Eastern parts where no frosts come in the winter for where any frost comes it quickly perisheth and therefore flourisheth always in those hot Climates Government and Vertues This is a Martial plant and of a Churlish nature so that there had need be great care taken in the choice thereof that only that be used in Physick which is sincere and pure without dross or adulteration which may be known if it be not heavy or close compact together but that it be moderately light with some small holes or hollowness here and there therein and that it be smooth and plain in the breaking and not in grains or knots or having small sticks or stones in it somewhat cleer and blackish but not of a deadish dark or il-favoured colour and that it will be made quickly into a very fine and white powder It purgeth both flegm yellow-choller and watery-humours Flegm Yellow-choler watry-Humours very strongly but if it be indiscreetly given it will not only trouble the stomach more than any other medicine but will also scowr fret and rase the guts in working too powerfully oftentimes unto blood and oftentimes unto faintings and swoonings and therefore is not fit to be given to any gentle or tender body Mesue declareth three several hurts or dangers that come to the body thereby and the remedies of them The first is saith he that it ingendereth certain knawing winds in the stomack so much offending it that it provoketh to vomit To be baked therefore in a Quince and some parsly fennel or wild Carrot-seed or Galanga mixed with it is the remedy hereof The next is that it inflameth the Spirits by the overmuch sharpness or fierceness therein whereby it readily induceth feavers especially in those that are subject to obstructions and repleat with putrid humours
may outwardly be applied for the same purpose it hindreth conception in Women if they make much use of it The Cokar Nut-tree Description and Names THis groweth to be a great large Timber-tree the body cover'd with a smooth bark bare or naked without any branch to a great height for which cause the Indians do either bore holes therein at certain distances and knock strong pegs into them which stick out so much as may serve for sooting to get up into the tree to gather the juice or liquor and the fruit or fasten ropes with nailes round about the tree with spaces which serve as steps to go up into it and towards the top it spreadeth out into sundry great Arms which bow themselves almost round with large leaves on them like the Date tree but greater whose middle-rib is very great and abiding alwaies green and with fruit also continually one succeeding another from between the lower boughs come forth smaller stalks hanging down bearing sundry flowers on them like those of the chestnut-tree after which come large great three-square fruit or Nuts ten or twelve and sometimes twenty thereon together as big as ones head or as a smaller Pompion almost round but a little smaller at the end covered with a hard tough Ash-coloured thick bark an inch thick in some places and within it a hard woody brownish shell but black being polished having at the Head or top thereof three holes somewhat resembling the nose and eyes of a Monkey between which outer bark and this shell grow many gross thredd 's or hairs within the woody shell there is a white kernel cleaving close to the side thereof as sweet as an Almond with a fine sweet water in the middle thereof as pleasant as Milk which will grow lesse pleasant or consume either by over ripeness or long keeping this tree is called by the Indians Maro in Malaca Trican and in other places by several other apppellations the timber of this tree is solid and firm black and shining like the walnut-tree and fit for any building and Garcias saith it is of two sorts I suppose he meaneth for two uses the one to bear fruit the other to extract the liquor which issues therefrom when the branches are cut or when it is bored and received into some things tyed thereunto for that purpose which liquor they call in their Language Sura and it sheweth like unto troubled Wine but in tast like new sweet Wine which being boyled they call Orraque and being destilled it yeildeth a spirit like unto our Aquavitae and it is used for the same purposes as we do ours and will burn like it they call it Fula And being set in the Sun it will become good Vinegar and that which runneth last being set in the Sun to grow hard or boyled to hardness will become Sugar which they call Jagra of the inner kernel while it is fresh they make bread the fresher the Nuts are the sweeter is the meat thereof Government and Vertues This is a Solar plant the fruit or kernel of the Coker-nut doth nourish very much and is good for lean bodies they increase the natural seed and stir up the appetite to Venery Venery Throat and are good to mollifie the hoarsenesse of the Throat and hoarseness Hoarseness of the voice Chocholate HAving before set down the particular Vertues of the Cacoa or Coker-Nut I shall add somewhat of a Confection or Composition made therof called Chocolate It is brought over unto us made into Rowls is used for a Cordial being macerated in milk and made potable adding what other ingredients pleases the preparer thereof which may be done divers waies according to the constitution of the party and medicinal use it is prepared for There is very much variety of the ingredients whereof this confection is compounded some do put into it black Pepper and Tanasco which is a red Indian root like Madder which is proper onely for those who are of cold and moist constitutions and are troubled with a very cold Stomack and Liver Another Receipt of the Indian Spaniards is this Take of Cacoa's 700. of white Sugar one pound and an half Cinnamon two ounces of long red Pepper 14 in Number of Cloves half an ounce three cods of the Logwood or Campeche tree or instead of that the weight of two Rialls or a shilling of Anniseeds some put in Almonds kernels of Nuts and Orenge-flower-water This Receipt is fit for those that have chronick diseases macilent bodies or are inclinable to be infirm you may either add or take away according to the necessity or temperature of every one and it is very proper and convenient that Sugar be put into it when it is drunk sometimes they make Tabulats of the Sugar and the Chocholate together which they do onely to please the palâ—ts as the Dames of Mexico do use it and they are there sold in shops and are confected and eaten like other sweet-meats Another Receipt or way of compounding it shall follow but take this for a Rule that one Receipt cannot be proper for all Persons therefore such as drink it as common drink in publick houses may receive more hurt than good by it therefore every one may make choice of the ingredients that they may be usefull for the complexion of the Body The Receipt is this To every 100 of Cacao's put two cods of long red Pepper one handful of Anniseeds one cod of Campeche or Logwood two drams of Cinnamon Almonds and Hasel-nuts of each a dozen white Sugar half a pound and if you cannot have those things which come from the Indies you may make it with the rest The way of compounding the Chocholate The Cacao and other ingredients must be beaten in a stone morter or grownd upon abroad stone which the Indians call Metate and is made onely for that use such stones as our Painters grind their colours upon will serve for that use the first thing that is to be done is to dry the ingredients with care that in stirring they be not burnt nor become black and if they be over dried then they will be bitter and lose their vertue the Cinnamon and the long red Pepper are to be first beaten with the Anniseed and then beat the Cacao by little and little till it be all powdered and sometimes turn it round in the beating that it may mix the better and every one of these ingredients must be beaten by it self and then put them all into the vessel where the Cacao is which you must stir together then take out that paste put it into the morter under which you must lay a little fire after the confection it made But you must be very careful not to put more fire than will warm it that the unctuous parts do not fly away you must searse all the ingredients but onely the Cacoa and when you find it to be wel beaten and incorporated which you shall know by the
to be used against all roughness of the skin Wild Scurff Scurff Knobs Knobs foul spots and the Leprosie Leprosie Fistulas Terms dead birth Sneesing being mixed with Oyles and Oyntments and applied thereunto the same sliced and put into Fistula's takes away the hardnesse of them the same used as a pesâ—aty bringeth down the flowers and expelleth the Dead-birth the powder thereof put into the Nose or snuffed up into the same causeth Sneesing warmeth and purgeth the Brain from grosâ—e Slimy-humors the same boyled in Vinegar and holden in the mouth easeth the Toothach Tooth-ach Eyes and mingled with Collyries for the Eyes it doth cleer and sharpen the sight The root of Hellebore pounded with Meal and Hony and laid where Mice and Rats frequent will kill them that eat thereof and if it be boiled in Milk and set for Waspes and Flies to sick thereof it killeth them White Ellebore unprepared and unduly taken or too much in quantity is very hurtful to the body for it choketh and troubleth all the inward parts draweth together and shrinketh all the Sinews and at length killeth the Party therefore it ought not to be taken without good advice and care and due preparation neither is it to be given to such people as be either too old or too young nor to weak or Feeble persons nor to such as spit bloud or be troubled in their Stomacks or such as are straight and narrow-Chested such people may by no means take of it without danger Wild White-Ellebore or Neesewort Names IN Latine it is called Helleborine and Epipactis in high Dutch Wild't Wit Niescruyt that is Wild White-Helle-bore Descript This Herb is like unto the before-mentioned White Ellebore but that in all parts it is smaller it hath a straight stalk with sinewy leaves like the l aves of Plaintain or White Ellebore but smaller the flowers hang down from the stalk of a white colour hollow in the middle with small yellow and incarnate spots of a very strange fashion and when the flowers are gone there cometh after them small seed like Sand inclosed in thick husks the roots are spread here and there full of sap covered with a thick bark and of a bitter tast Place This plant delighteth in moist Meadows and shadowy places it groweth in low dark shadowy places in Brabant as Dodoneus writeth Time This herb sloureth in June and July Government and Vertues It is likewise a Martial plant hot and dry of temperature The decoction of this Herb drunk openeth the stoppings of the Liver Stopping Liver and is good for such as are any ways diseased in their Livers or have received any Poison Poison or are bitten by any manner of Venemous beast Erisimon Names IT is called in Latine Iâ—io which some English by the name of Winter-Cresses this is the Erisimum of Dioscorides Descript Erisimon groweth up with long leaves deeply rent and jagged upon both sides not much unlike the leaves of the Rocket gentle or Roman rocket or Wild Mustard the stalks be small slender and pliant and will twist and wind like Ozier branches upon the same stalks or branches grow many yellow-flowers and after them come little slender husks wherein also is a seed of a sharp biting tast the root is long and thick having many strings or hairy threds hanging thereunto Place This herb delighteth to grow in untilled and stony places and by High-ways sides Time Erysimon floureth in June and July Government and Vertues Erisimon is hot and dry of the same nature as are Cresses under the dominion of Mercury the seed thereof taken with hony in manner of a Lohoc and often licked in ripeneth tough and clammy Flegm Flegm Lungs gathered together about the Lungs and within the Breast and canseth the same to be spit easily forth it is likewise good against shortness of Breath and an old Cough Breath short Old Cough it will be the more proper for the same purpose if the seed be first steeped in fair water and then dryed by the fire or else lap it up in paste and bake it which will mitigate the heat thereof The same seed so prepared and put into medicines is good against the Jaundies and Gripings of the Belly against the Sciatica and all Venome and Poison Jaundies Belly ake Sciatica Poison cankers Swelling Imposthumes breast Cods Stones The seed of Erisimum mingled with hony and water and applied pultis-wise is very available against Cankers hard Swellings Imposthumes behind the Eares the old and hard Imposthumes and hard Swellings of the Breast Cods and Stones it wasteth and consumeth all cold Swellings Euphorbium Names IT is called in shops Euphorbium and Euforbium of some Carduus Indicus and Ficus Indicus the Thistle or Fig of India Descript Euphorbium is the Gum or Tear of a certain strange plant growing in Lybia en the mount Athlante or Athlas next the Country of Mauritania now called Morisco or the Country of the Moors It was first found out in the time of Juba King of Lybia the leaf of this plant is long and round almost like the fruit of the Cucumer but the ends or corners be sharper and set about with many prickles which are sometimes found in the Gum it self one of those leaves set in the ground doth increase and multiply divers the sap or liquor that cometh forth of the said leaves burneth or scaldeth and straightwayes it congealeth or becometh thick and that is the Euphorbium the Euphorbium at the first is yellowish clear brittle very sharp and burning in the mouth and throat fresh and new not much above a year old For this Gum doth soon lose much of his heat and virtue by Age. Place The Euphorbium described of the Antients groweth upon the borders of Mauritania and in Africa and Judaea from whence it hath been brought into certain places of Spain France and Italy where it bringeth forth neither flowerâ— nor fruit Time Euphorbium putteth forth his leaves in the Spring-time whereof the first second and the third is the stalk or stem and the rest grow forth as branches and when the plant is seven or eight years old it bringeth forth yellow flowers the fruit is ripe in Autumn of colour red and prickly Government and Vertues Euphorbium is under the dominion of Mars it is of temperature very hot and dry almost in the fourth degree Euphorbium is too churlish a medicine to be taken of it self alone but being duly corrected and prepared it becomes very medicinal The way and manner of correction and preparation thereof is as followeth 1. It may be corrected several wayes one manner is first to anoint it with oyl of sweet Almonds afterwards put it in the middle of a Citron or Lemmon and wrap it or close it up in leavened paste and so bake it and when the paste is baked you may take the Euphorbium out of it to use in medicine 2. Another way is Take of Mastick Gum Tragacanth and Euphorbium
of each equal parts mix them well together and put it into the middle of a loaf and bake it well then take of the inner crum of that loaf and make small pills thereof which be singular good against Weakness and debility caused by the French-Pox French-Pox and all pains of the Limbs 3. Another way is Take Euphorbium and Mastick of each equall partâ— and make pills thereof with the juice of Citrons or Orenges which pills are much commended against the Pestilence Pestilence Euphorbium being well corrected and prepared purgeth downward tough cold and slimy Flegm Flegm Choler drawing the same unto it self from the remote parts of the body and also purgeth Choler it is very good against the old and continual Headach Head-ach Palsie the Palsie Cramp weakness that followes after the French-Pox Pain of the Sinews Cramp French-Pox Sinews and extream parts and is good against the Pestilence and such like contagious diseases A plaister made of Euphorbium with oyl and wax is singular good against all Aches and pains of the Joints Lameness Aches Lameness Palsies Cramps and shrinking of Sinews Palsie Sinews the same being mingled with oyl of Bayes and Bears-grease cureth Scurff and Scabbs of the Head Baldness Scurff Scald-Head Baldness and causeth the Hair to grow again and it will also cause the Beard to grow if the Chin be anointed therewith The same mingled with Oyl and stroked or laid upon the Temples is good against Drowsiness and doth awaken and quicken the Spirits of such as are subject to the Lethargy Lethargy Apoplexies Speech-lost Leprosie and if it be applied to the Nape of the Neck it restoreth the speech again to such as have lost it by reason of the Apoplexy or other sickness and being mingled with Vinegar and applied it takes away foul and ill favored spots of the body the Leprosie Leprosie scurff and skoles of the skin Fenugreek Names IT is called in shops in Latin Foenum Graecum which is as much as to say Greek-hay Descript Fenugreek groweth up with tender stalks round blackish hollow and full of branches the leaves are devided into three parts like the leaves of Trefoil or the three-leaved grasse the flowers be pale whitish and like the flowers of Lupines but smaller after the flowers are faded or fallen away there follow after them long Cods or husks crooked and sharp pointed wherein is a yellow seed the root is full of small hanging hairs Place It groweth not in this Country but in the Gardens of some Herbarists Time It flowereth in July and the seed is ripe in August Government and Virtues Fenugreek-seed is hot in the second degree and dry in the first under the influence of the planet Mercury the seed which is to be had at our Druggists and Apothecaries shops is only used in medicines The decoction or broth of the seed drunk with a little Vinegar Ill-humors expelleth and purgeth forth all evill and superfluous humors which cleave or stick fast to the Bowells The same decoction first made with Dates and afterwards made into the substance of a syrrup with hony doth mundifie and cleanse the Breast Breast Chest Chest and Lungs Lungs and is good for all griefs and diseases of the Breast so that the Patient be not troubled with a Feaver or the Head-ach for such a syrrup is hurtful to the Head and to them that have Agues Fenugreek is of a softning and dissolving nature and therefore the Meal thereof being boyled in Mede or honied water doth consume soften and dissolve hard Swellings Swellings and Imposthumes Imposthumes and a paste made thereof with Salt-Peeter and Vinegar doth soften and wast the hardness and Swelling of the Spleen It is good for Women that have either Imposthume Ulcer or stopping in the Matrix Spleen Matrix to bathe and sit in the decoction thereof and a suppository made of the juice thereof and put up into the neck of the Matrix doth mollifie and soften all hardness thereof or in the natural place of Conception the decoction of Fenugreek is good to wash the head withall to take away the scurffe thereof Scales Nits and dandriffe Dandriffe Scurffe Scales Nits The same applied with Brimstone and Hony drives away Pushes pimples wheales and spots in the Face heales all Manginess and Itch Pushes Pimples Itch. and helpeth the rank and stinking smell of the Arm-pits The seed of Fenugreek being prepared as the Lupines may be eaten and then they loose the belly gently The Fig-tree Kinds and Names OF these there is the wild Fig-tree and the Garden Fig-tree The Garden Fig-tree is called in Latine Ficus Sativa and the fruit Ficus or a Fig The wild Fig-tree is called Ficus Silvestris and Caprificus the dry Fig is called in Latin Carica the fruit of the Fig-tree which never cometh to ripeness is called in Latin grossus and of some Erineus Descript The Garden Fig-tree groweth with many branches full of pith within like the stalks of Elder covered over with a smooth plain bark or rind the leaves be great and large of a blackish green and for the most part divided into five parts at the top of the branches grow the fruit the which is round and long fashioned like Pears sweet and full of small kernells or graines Before the fruit be ripe if it be hurt or scarified there cometh a sap or juice like milk but being through-ripe the juice is like to Hony Place The Fig-trees are plentifull in Spain and Italy In this Country they are planted in Gardens but they must be set in warm places that stand well in the Sun and defended from the North and North-East Winds Time The Fig-trees in this Country are late before they put forth their leaves it being in May the fruit is ripe about the end of Summer Government and Vertues Figs are under the Government of Jupiter the green Figs new gathered are a little warm somewhat moist the dry Figs are hot almost in the second degree and of subtil parts the milky juice of Figs is hot and dry almost in the third degree and also sharp and biting the leaves have also some sharpness with an opening power but not so strong as the juice The new gathered Figs nourish more than the other fruits and they loose the belly gently but they ingender Windiness Belly Windiness heat Thirst they abate heat and quench thirst but eaten in too great a quantity hurt and weaken the Stomack the dry Figs do nourish better then the green or new Figs yet they ingender no very good blood those that feed much upon Figs become Lousie thereby as some say Figs eaten before meat do loose the Belly and are good for the Kidneys Kidneys for they drive forth Gravel and Vrine Gravel Urine they provoke sweat Sweat and by the same means they send forth Corrupt Corrupt and stinking humors
many growing close together each hanging on a long foot-stalk by it self with a notch or clift at the head or end thereof The wood hereof is harder more knotty and yellower then the Female Descript 2. Tilia foemina major The greater Female Line-tree groweth to be a larger tree then the former especially if it happen to be planted in good ground covered with a dark coloured bark the next thereunto being very pliable to bend and bind having some other thin rindes within it the leaves are fair broad greener smoother gentler rounder than Elm-leaves and with a longer end dented about the edges and of a reasonable good scent at the end of the branches oftentimes and at the foot of the leaves shoot forth long and narrow whitish leaves along the middle rib whereof springeth out a slender long stalk with divers white flowers thereon smelling very sweet after which follow small berries wherein is contained black round seed the wood is whitish smooth and light Descript 3. Tilia foemina minor The lesser Linden-tree is like the last in all things saving that it groweth smaller in body leaves and flowers the leaves are of a darker green colour and beareth no fruit after the flowers Place and Time The greater Female-kind is planted in many places in this land in pleasant Walks it making a large sweet shadow and usually flowreth in May. The other are great strangers and scarce to be seen any where in this land Government and Vertues There is no medicinal use made of the Male Linden The Female is under the dominion of Venus of a moderate temperature and somewhat drying and astringent the decoction of the leaves being sod in water is a pood Lotion to wash the sore Mouthes Sore mouths of young Children or any sore Mouths that have Ulcers blisters Vlcers blisters or Cankers in them The leaves being pounded or bruised after the boyling and applied to the Legs or Feet cankers swelled Feet that are swelled with falling down of humors doth help them the hark is also effectual for the same purpose The flowers of the Line-tree and of Lilly Convally distilled together the water thereof is good against the Falling-sickness so likewise is the distilled water of the bark and is good against those fretting humors that cause the bloody Flux and griping in the Guts the water wherein the inner bark hath been steeped till the water become thick and muscilaginous and applied with clothes wet therein helps burnings and scaldings Liquid Amber Descript and Place LIquid Amber is a thick Rozen like gum droping by incision from certain great trees in the West-Indies which trees are full of branches covered with a thick Ash-coloured bark the leaves are like unto Ivy leaves and the Gum which issueth from the tree is of a strong and sweet smell and is somewhat like unto Liquid Storax and may passe instead thereof for the same uses but there is a coarse sort which is the scum of the uppermost fatness that is made by boyling the branches and is supposed to be that Storax liquida sold by Druggists and Apothecaries out of the first sort while it is fresh and laid in the Sun there droppeth a certain clear reddish oyl called oyle of Liquid Amber and of some Liquid Amber it self Government and Virtues Both Tree and Gum are under the influence of Jupiter of a moderately hot and moist temperature and is useful either of it self or mixed with other things to comfort and warm a cold moist braine Brain Stomack Digestion Apetite Mother Tumors being used as an oyntment and easeth all pains proceeding from a cold cause being applied thereunto It comforts and strengtheneth a weak Stomack helps digestion and procures an Appetite But more effectually if a plaister be made thereof with some Storax Musk and Amber and applied to the Stomack it is also profitably used in all cold griefs of the the Mother it warms mollifies and dissolves Tumors and opens obstructions and stoppings of the Terms Lung-flower or Autumn Gentian Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of these plants are generally called Autumn small Gentians Gentianellae Autumnales and of some Pneumonanthe Descript 1. The greater Autumn Gentian Pneumonanthe dicta riseth up according to the richness of the ground higher or lower sometimes two foot high and sometimes not above a foot and sometimes with many and sometimes with fewer stalks of a brownish green colour with many long and narrow dark green leaves set by couples upon them up to the topsâ— which seldom branch forth but bear every one a large hollow flower in most of them of a deep blewish purple colour but in some a little paler ending in five points the roots are many small and long growing deep into the ground and abiding all the Winter Descript 2. Gentianella Autumnalis simbriato flore Antumn-Geatian of Naples This doth creep up like Couch-grasse from a long yellowish small root shooting forth a few long and narrow leavs likâ— those of Flax but shorter but those that grow up to the middle of the stalk are larger and lesser again from the middle to the top two set at every joint all along and striped from every one of the joints on both sides to the top of the stalk which is green and about a foot high at the top commeth a purplish green husk which hath four large pointed leaves and encloseth the flower which is long and writhed before it be blown and of a pale blew colour but when it is blown open is of a deeper blew colour having four leaves somewhat long and as it were purfled about the edges with a little hairiness at them and a small leaf at the bottom of each flower with a few yellow threds in the middle standing about a head which groweth to be the seed-vessel forked into two parts at the head being greater there then below and containeth in it very small black seed when it is ripe Descript 3. Autumn-Gentian with small Centory-leaves called in Latine Gentianella Autumnalis Centaureae minoris folio This riseth up with sundry stalks scarce a foot high parted into many small branches whereon do stand two leaves together very like those of the lesser Centaury not so long as either of the former but a little broader and of a whiter green colour at the tops of the stalks and branches grow divers blew flowers set in small long husks half way rising above the tops of them the seed is small and groweth in long horned vessels the root is small and fibrous Descript 4. There is another sort with small Centory-like flowers which is more spreading small but hath larger leaves and flowers than Centory and of the same colour as are the flowers of Centory yet having many more and lasteth longer the root abideth not the Winter Descript 5. Another smaller Gentian with Centaury-leaves is very like unto the last but smaller and the stalks much lower not above three inches high having
mystica and in Shops Nux moscata the Tree groweth very tall like our Pear-trees having leaves always green somewhat resembling the leaves of the Orange-tree the fruit groweth like our Walnuts having an outer thick husk which when it growes ripe it openeth it self as the shell of the Walnut doth shewing the nut within covered with the Mace which is of an orient crimson colour while it is fresh but the air changeth the colour to be more dead and yellowish Government and Vertues The Nutmegs and Maces are both Solar of temperature hot and dry in the second degree and somewhat astringent and are good to stay the Lask they are effectual in all cold griefs of the head or Brain Lask Head Brain Sinews Mother Wind Stomach sight for Palsies shrinking of Sinews and Diseases of the Mother they cause a sweet breath and discuss wind in the Stomach or Bowels quicken the Sight and comfort the Spirits provoke Urine increase sperm and are comfortable to the Stomach they help to procure rest and sleep being laid to the temples by allaying the distemper of the Spirits The way to use it to cause rest is to take two pieces of red Rose-cake and warm them in vinegar over a Chafing-dish of Coals then scrape nutmeg upon the cakes and bind it warm to the temples The Mace is of the same property but somewhat more warming and comforting than the Nutmeg the thick oyl that is drawn from both Nutmegs and Mace is good in pectoral griefs to warm a cold Stomach Stomach Cough and help the Cough and to dry up distillations of Rheum falling upon the lungs Navelwort of Mathiolus Kinds and Names THere are hereof three sorts called 1 Androsaces major 2. Androsaces minor and 3. Androsaces minima Mathioli Mathiolus his greater lesser and least Navelwort Descript 1. Androsaces major hath divers broad fresh green leaves a little hairy lying upon the ground like Plantain-leaves but smaller and unevenly dented about the edges from among which spring up divers round hairy stalks four or five inches high without any leaves up to the tops where stand four or five leaves like the lower but lesser and among them grow divers slender foot stalks bearing every one of them a small white flower with five small notched leaves standing in a green husk divided at the top into five parts wherein after the flower cometh a small round head full of small blackish seed the root is small and fibrous and perisheth as soon as it hath born seed and riseth again of its own sowing which if it spring before winter or that it doth not run to seed the first year of the sowing it will abide the first winter and flower the Summer following Descript 2. The lesser Androsaces or Navel-wort of Mathiolus groweth like the former but the leaves are smaller and narrower yet hairy and dented about the edges the stalks are like the other but have no leaves at the tops but an Vmbell or Tuft of many small flowers like the former but whiter after which shoot forth small round heads with seeds the root is more fibrous than the former small and fibrous and perisheth every year after it hath given its seed Descript 3. Androsaces minus the least Navel-wort of Mathiolus is very like the former having very many hairy leaves lying on the ground like those of the smallest Shepherds-purse with edges dented deeper than the former and having smaller and shorter stalks but as hairy as the others having five small green leaves set in a round compass at the joynt from whence arise three or four small white flowers which bear seed in heads as the former The root consists of a few small threads Place and Time They all grow in divers places of Germany they flower in May and their seed is ripe in June and July Government and Vertues These Plants are governed by Mars and are of a somewhat sharp taste of temperature hot and dry in the second degree they cleanse old Sores and Ulcers and staye the malignity of those that are corroding or fretting Old Sores Vlcers drying up the superfluous moisture which hindreth their healing cleanseth the roughness of the skin and Sun-burning the juice being clarifi'd and dropt into the eyes cleanseth them from films or skin growing over them Apple-bearing Nightshade Kinds and Names OF these there are several kinds which are accounted amongst the number of Nightshades called Solanum pomiferum and also Mala insana or mad Apples Descript 1. Lobel's red berried Nightshade called in Latine solanum pomiferum herbariorum Lobellii this groweth like common nightshade but greater the leaves are like small Tobacco-leaves the flowers are white the Berries small and round of a reddish colour containing white seeds within them of an insipid taste and perisheth every year as Nightshade doth Descript 2. Mad Apples of Syria called in Latine mala insana Syriaca This springeth up with a great hard round purplish or brownish green stalk about two foot high divided from the bottom into divers branches whereon are set many hairy broad rough leaves unevenly cut in on the edges At the joynts with the leaves come forth several large flowers having six large pointed leaves in some Plants white in others of a pale deadish purple colour with yellow threads in the middle after which come a somewhat long round fruit in hot countreys as big as a Cucumber but in colder places seldome exceeding the bigness of an egg set in the same husk that contained the flowers before having a thin skin and full of a whitish pulp and juice within having many small flat and whitish seeds within it the root is fibrous and perisheth with the first cold frosts Descript 3. Mad-apples of Ethiopia Mala insana Ethiopica These are somewhat like the former but that it groweth not so high nor so much spreading and hath but one upright stalk about half a yard high set in divers places with many small pricks and at several joynts with ragged leaves having some pricks on the middle rib in the back side the flowers stand on the branches at the joynts consisting of six white short leaves with a yellow point in the middle of divers threds joyned together after which cometh the fruit which is round and pointed at the end smaller and harder than the greater kind of Love-Apples and straked in several places of a fine red colour more deeper when it is ripe having sometimes small bunches on them like unto other small apples growing unto them having within them a juicy pulp more sharp than the other with flat yellowish white seed within it the root consisteth of threds and perisheth every year Descript 4. Mad-Apples of Europe Mala insana Europaea this kind groweth with a round upright stalk a foot and an half high from whence spring forth at several joynts divers long and somewhat broad green leaves unevenly cut on the edges and ending in a long point three for the most
to work those good effects in Physick whereunto it is conducible is laid down and prescrib'd by the Fryer Gregorio de Reggio before-mentioned whose Receipt is this following The Correction of the Guinny Peppers TAke the ripe Cods of any sort of the Guinny Pepper for they are in property all alike and dry them well first of themselves and then in an Oven after the bread is taken out put it into a pot or pipkin with some flower that they may be thorowly dryed then cleanse them from the flower and their stalks if they have any cut them or clip them very small both husks and seeds within them and to every ounce of them put a pound of fine Wheat-flower make them up together into Cakes or small Loaves with so much leaven as ye think may be convenient for the quantity you make bake these as you do Bread of the small size and being baked cut it again into smaller parts and bake it again that it may be as dry and hard as bisket which beaten into fine powder and sifted may be kept for any of the uses hereafter specified or may serve instead of ordinary Pepper to season Meat or broth or for Sauce or any other purpose the East-Indian-Pepper doth serve for it doth not onely give as good but rather a better tast or relish to the Meat or Sauce but is found to be singular good both to discusse the Wind and the Chollick in the body It is singular good to be used with flatulent or windy meats and such as breed much moisture and crudities whereof Fish is one especial one scruple of the said powder taken in a little broth of Veal or of a Chicken doth very much comfort a cold Stomack Stomack causing Flegm Flegm and such viscous humors as lye low in the bottom thereof to be avoyded helpeth digestion for it provoketh an Appetite Appetite to Meat it provoketh Urine Vrine and taken with Saxifrage water expelleth the Stone Stone in the Kidneys Kidneyes and the Flegm that breedeth them and taketh away the dimness or mistiness of the Sight Sight being used in Meats taken with Pillulae Aleophanginae it doth help the Dropsie Dropsie the powder taken for three dayes together in the decoction of Penny-royal expelleth the Dead-birth Dead-birth but if a piece of the Cod or husk either green or dry be put into the Mother after Delivery it will make them barren barrenness for ever after but the powder taken for four or five dayes fasting with asmuch Fennel-seed will case all pains of the Mother Pains of the Mother The same also made up with a little powder of Gentian and oyle of bayes into a Pessary with some Cotton-wool doth bring down the Courses Courses the same mixed with a Lohoch or Electuary for the Cough Cough helpeth an old inveterate Cough being mixed with Hony and applied to the Throat helpeth the Quinsie Quinzy and made up with a little Pitch or Turpentine and laid upon any hard knots or kernels kernells in any part of the body it will dissolve them and not suffer any more to grow there and being mixed with Nitre and applied it takes away the Morphew Morphew and all Freckles Spots marks and discolourings of the skin applied with Hensgrease it dissolveth all cold Imposthumes Imposthumes and Carbuncles Carbuncle and mixed with sharp Vinegar it dissolveth the hardness of the Spleen if some thereof be mixed with some Vnguentum de Alabastro and the Reynes of the back anointed therewith it will take away the shaking fits of Agues a plaister made thereof with the leaves of Tobacco will heal the sting or biting of any Venemous Beast The decoction of the husks themselves made with Water and the Mouth gargled therewith helpeth the Toothach and preserveth the Teeth from rottenness the Ashes of them being rubbed on the Teeth will cleanse them make black Teeth White The decoction of them with Wine helpeth the Hernia Ventosa or watry Rupture if it be applied warm Morning and Evening if they put it to steep three dayes together in Aquavitae it helpeth the Palsie thâ— place affected being bathed therewith and steeped for a day in Wine and two Spoonfulls drunk thereof every day fasting helpeth a stinking Breath and snufft up into the Nostrills it will help the stink of them caused there in by corrupted Flegm Pines Description and Names THere is one sort called the West-Indian delicious Pines called in Latine Anana seu Pina and another sort called Anana Silvestris Wild-Indian Pines These Pines which for their excellent and pleasant sweet fruit are much esteemed in all the West-Indies are the fruit of a kind of thistle growing with many long hard rough stiffe and narrow leaves thickest in the middle and thin cut in the end dented about the edges with reddish points seeming prickly like a thistle but are not from the middle whereof riseth up a round and shorter stalk than that of the wilder sort set with like leaves but lesser and at the top one head of the bigness of a reasonable Musk-melon or Pome-citron of a yellowish green before it be ripe more yellowish being thorow-ripe shewing as it were scaly like an Artichoke at the first view but more like to a Cone of the Pine-tree which we call a Pine-Apple for the form yet the out-side hath no hardness at all therein but may be cut or pared like unto Mellow Peach and are so sweet in scent that they may be smelled afar off and of a pleasant sweet tast and substance tasting as if Wine Rosewater and Sugar were mixed together and having no seed at all in it whereby it may be increased but as some say it hath whitish seed like a Musk-melon but lesser and longer this fruit doth bear a bush of leaves at the top and some small heads on small branches underneath it which being taken from it and planted half way deep in the ground will take root and bear fruit the next year which is the onely way of propagating thereof In Brasile it is said they have sundry sorts hereof one they call Jaama which is longer and pleasanter than any other and of a yellowish substance Another they call Benjama being whiter within and of a Wawmish tast with the Lusciousness a third they call Jajagna white also within but tasting like sweet Wine with a little tartness the root is great with many strings thereat but perisheth with the stalk after the fruit is ripe it was first brought from Sancta Cruce in Brasil where it naturally groweth into both West and East-Indies being not natural to either of them but is onely manured there and now is grown there plentiful They of Brasile call it Nana others Anana the Spaniards and Portugalls call it Pinus from the likeness and so do most Countries following that name The cheifest time of their ripeness is in the Spring when they
are sweetest But this Pina surpasseth all other fruits in the West-Indies for pleasantness and wholsomeness so that many eat them abundantly but a surfeit with them is dangerous as it is with the best Meats drinks or fruits whatsoever The Physitians there forbid it their Patients lest it should breed inflamations Some wonders are reported hereof which I never had experience of neither do intend to go thither to disprove them As namely That if one of these fruits be cut through the middle with a knife and they joyned together again the peices will joyn and stick so fast together as if they had not been cut asunder at all Another property it hath that if one cut the fruit with a knife and leave the knife sticking therein untill the next day so much of the blade thereof as stuck within the fruit will be wholy consumed and wasted or as it were eaten away the knife also that did cut one of them if it be not forthwith clean wiped but let alone unwiped will seem as if it had been eaten in with Aqua fortis Descript 2. Wild-Indian Pine Anana Sylvestris this Wild kind of Pine groweth naturally both greater higher and more prickly or thistle-like having a great tuft of leaves at the bottom of their stalks or stems next the ground seeming to be Aloe-leave afar off but lesser and of a pale green colour set with sharp prickles It is increased by the off-sets one arising from another from the main stem grow sundry branches bearing at their ends heads of soft tender leaves closed round together which are nothing but the flowers and are of a yellowish colour smelling very sweet out of these heads rise spikes not unlike to those of the Reed but thicker closer set and far more beautiful smelling like the Cedar from the branches hang down the fruit called by the Portugalls Anana's Breva's that is Wild Anan's or Pina's which do somewhat resemble the manured ones of the bigness of a Melon of a beautiful red colour very pleasant to behold which is divided into parts like unto Cypresse-nuts when they are dry and set with bunches or knobs very much resembling a Cone or Pine-apple which are nothing so good although a little pleasant but harsh withal whereof few do at for pleasure but they are more physically used Government and Vertues These rare fruits are plants of Venus and of a moderate temperature six or eight ounces of the juice of this Wild kind taken in a morning fasting with some Sugar is a most present and certain remedy against the heat or inflamations of the Liver or Back Liver Back and is of singular use and very effectual against Ulcers inflamations and soreness of the Kidneyes and Bladder and foul purulentous Urines Kidneys Bladder Vrines and is good for the Excoriations of the Yard all which diseases this cureth in three dayes time The Pine-tree Kinds THer are two kinds of the Pine-tree that is the Garden and the wild Pine-tree and of the Wild Pine-tree there be divers sorts Names The Pine-tree is called in Latine Pinus and the nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are called in Latine Nuces Pineae in English Pine-Apple kernels or nuts in French Pignous The tame or Garden kind of Pine-apple is also called in Latine Pinus Sativa and the wild Pine is called in Latine Pinaster and Pinus Sylvestris the first wild kind is supposed to be the Pinus Tarentina whereof Pliny writeth the second kind is called in Latine humilis Pinus or Pinus terrestris and in Italian Mughi The third is called in some places in the Mountains betwixt Italy and Germany Cambri and Cirmoli and is that kind which the French-men call Sniffe The Fourth is called in Latine Pinus Idaea The fift is called in Latine Pinus marina and in French Pin-marin The fruit of the Pine-tree is called in Latine Conus and nux pinea and in English a Cone or Pine-apple in French Pome de pin Descript The Pine-tree groweth to a great and lofty height with many branches at the top parted into other round branches set round about with little hard leaves and almost sharp-pâ—inted or prickly very straight and narrow and of a green whitish colour The Timber is red and heavy and within about the heart full of sap and liquor The fruit is great balls of a brown Chesnut colour which are called Cones or Pine-apples in which grow small nuts wherein is a sweet white kernel Descript 1. Of the first Wild kind The first wild sort of the Pine-trees is high great and thick and yet not so high as the Tame or Garden Pine the branches be spread abroad with long sharp-pointed leaves the fruit is short and not hard which doth open easily and soon falleth Descript 2. The second kind of the wild Pine doth not grow so high neither is the stem growing straight up but bringeth forth many branches suddenly from the root creeping by the ground long slender and pliable or easie to be bent or ployed insomuch that hereof they may make hoops for Wine Hogs-heads and other Vessels and Casks the fruit of this tree is greater than the fruit of any other of the Wild Pine-trees Descript 3. The third kind groweth straight upright and waxeth great and high yet not so high as the other Wild kinds the branches of this sort do grow like the Pitch-tree the fruit is long and big almost like the fruit of the Pitch-tree in the same is contained triangled small nuts like to the Nuts of the Pine-apple but smaller and britler with a kernel of a very good taste like unto the kernel of the tame Pine Descript 4. The fourth wild kind hath a long hard fruit the which will not open easily nor fall lightly from the tree Descript 5. The fifth kind hath small round nuts not much greater than Cypresse-nuts the which will open and fall quickly From out of these trees cometh that liquor called Rozen especially from the wild-trees and it runneth most commonly out of the bark or from the Timber and is sometimes found in the fruit And from these trees cometh also Pitch both liquid and hard Place and Time The Tame or Garden Pine groweth in many places in Greece Italy Spain France and in some places in England where it hath been planted The wild Pines grow upon Mountains and that sometimes on very high Mountains where none other Trees or Herbs do grow especially the first wild kind which also groweth in Germany Poland Leifland and other cold Regions The fruit or Pine-apples are ripe in September Government and Virtues The Pine-trees are under the dominion of Saturn the bark is dry and astringent especially the scales of the Cones or Apples and the leaves be almost of the same temperature The kernels of the nuts are hot and moist and somwhat astringent The scales of the Pine-apple with the bark of the Pine tree do stop the Lask and bloudy-flux and provoke Urine Lask-Bloody Flux Vrine
and the decoction of the same drunken hath the like property The same is also good against all Scorchings and burnings with fire to be pounded together with litharge of silver and Frankincense and if there be some Coperas mixt therewith it will cleanse and heal Consuming and fretting Sores The leaves of the Pine-tree healeth Green Wounds and boyled in Vinegar they ease the Tooth-ach The kernels of the Nuts which are found in the Pine-apples are good for the Lungs Burning Old Sores Green Wounds Tooth-ach Lungs they cleanse the Breast and expectorate tough Flegm Breast Flegm also they nourish well and ingender good blood and are good for such as have the Cough and begin to pine away and consume in what sort soever they be taken These kernels also do open the Liver Cough Liver and Spleen and mitigate the sharpness of Urine Spleen Vrine and are good for those that are troubled with the Gravel and Stone Gravel Stone The Pitch-tree Names THis Tree is called in Latine Picea and Pytis Descript The Pitch-tree is also of an indifferent bigness and tall stature but not so great as the Pine-tree and alwayes green like the Pine and Firre-trees The Timber is fat and resinous and doth yeeld Rozen of divers sorts The branches be hard and parted into other sprayes most commonly cross-wise upon which grow small green leaves not round about the branches but by every side one right over against another like to little Feathers the fruit is smaller than the fruit of the Pine-tree In burning of this tree there doth issue out Pitch aâ— also there doth out of the Pine-tree Place and Time The Pitch-tree groweth in many places of Greece Italy France and Germany and the fruit hereof is also ripe in September Government and Vertues The leaves bark fruit kernels or Nuts of this Tree are almost of the same Nature Vertues and operations as the leaves bark fruit and kernels of the Pine-tree The Rozen that cometh out of the Pine and Pitch-trees OUt of the Pine and Pitch-trees riseth three sorts of Rozen besides the Pitch and Tar. 1. The one floweth out by force of the heat of the Sun in Summer from the Wood or Tymber where it is broken or cut 2. The other is found both upon and betwixt the bark of the Pine and Pitch-tree and most commonly in such parts thereof as are Cloven or hurt 3. The third kind groweth betwixt the scales of the fruit Names All the kinds of Rozen are called in Latin Resina In French Resine and in Dutch Herst The first kind is call Resina liquida and Resina Pini of this sort is also the Rozen which is Molten with the Sun in Summer and remaineth dry and may be made into powder which some call Resina Arida or dry Rozen The Second kind is called in Latine Resina arida but that which sweateth out of the Pine-tree is called Resina Pinea and that which cometh out of the Pitch-tree Resina Picea The third kind is called Resina Strobilina Government and Vertues All these Rozens are Solar and of an hot and dry temperature and of a cleansing and Scouring nature Rozen doth cleanse and heal new Wounds and there New-wounds fore is a principal ingredient in all Oyntments and Emplaisters that serve for that purpose It softneth hard Swellings and is comfortable to bruised Parts or Members being applied or laid to with Oyls and Oyntments or Plaisters appropriate thereunto Pitch and Tar. Kinds and Names THere be two sorts of Pitch the one moist and that is called liquid Pitch the other is hard and dry they do both run out of the Pine and Pitch-trees and out of certain other Trees as the Cedar Turpentine and Larch-trees by burning of the Wood and Timber of the lame Trees Pitch is called in Latine Pix in Frencâ— Poix in Dutch Peck The liquid Pitch is called in Latine Pix liquida in Brabant Teer and in English Tarr The dry Pitch is called in Latine Pix arida and Pix Navalis in English Ship-Pitch or Stone-Pitch in Dutch Steen-peck Government and Vertues The Pitch and Tar are both Solar hot and dry in the second degree and of subtile parts but the Stone-Pitch is the dryest the liquid Pitch or Tar is the hotter and of more subtile parts Liquid Pitch taken with Hony doth cleanse the Breast is good to be licked in by those that are troubled with shortnes of Breath breast shortness of Breath whose Breast is stuffed with corrupt Matter It mollifyeth and ripeneth all hard Swellings Hard swellings and is good to anoint the Neck against the Squinancy or Swelling of the Throat it is good to be put into mollifying Plaisters Anodynes to take away Pains and Maturatives or ripening Medicines being applied with Barly-meal it softneth the hardness of the Matrix and Fundament Squinancy Matrix fundament Liquid Pitch mingled with sulphur vivum or quick Brimstone represseth fretting Ulcers foul Scabs Vlcers Scabs and Scurff and if that some Salt be put thereunto it is good to be laid upon the Bitings and Stingings of Serpents and Vipers It cureth the rifts and cloven Chaps that happen to the Hands Feet Scurff Venemous Beasts Hands Feet and Fundament Fundament being laid thereto The Stone-Pitch being pounded very small with the fine powder of Frankincense healeth hollow Ulcers and Fistula's Vlcers Fistulas filling them up with Flesh the Stone-Pitch is not so strong as the Liquid Pitch but is better and apter to soder and glew Wounds together as Galen saith Sea-Plantane Kinds and Names THere are several sorts of Herbs referred to the Plantanes the first whereof is called Holostea but more fitter Sea-Plantane or ordinary Sea-Plantane their several Names shall follow in their Descriptions Descript 1. Ordinary Sea-plantane Plantago Marina vulgaris This Sea-plantane hath many narrow long and thick green leaves having here and there a dent or two on the edge pointed at the end among which rise up sundry bare stalks with a small spiked head thereon smaller than Plantane else a like both in blooming and Seed the root is somewhat white thick and long with long fibres thereat abiding many years Descript 2. Spanish Sea-plantane Holosteum Salmanticum This Spanish Sea-plantane also differeth not much from the former greater kind having many narrow hoary leaves lying on the ground but shorter and broader then they are among which rise up divers naked short stalks little more than an hand breadth high furnished from the middle almost to the tops with many whitish green flowers standing more sparsedly in the spiky heads then the former which do afterwards yeeld small Seed in husks like unto Plantane-Seeds the root is somewhat long and hard with divers Fibres at it There is another sort hereof much lesser than the former the leaves greener and narrower and the heads of Flowers are smaller Descript 3. The greater Sea-plantane with grassy leaves Holosteum angusti-folium majus sive Serpentaria
Dropsie Swelling of the Spleen and the pricking pains of the Sides Spleen Sides it also stayeth the spitting of Blood coming aswel from the Lungs as any other part The powder taken with Cassia dissolved and a little Turpentine washed cleanseth and strengthneth the Reins and is effectual for the Gonorrhea or Running of the Reines It is also good for pains and Swellings in the Head and against Melancholy the Sciatica Reins Head-ach melancholy Sciatica and Gout and pains of the Cramp Gout Cramp for which purpose one dram or two of the Extract thereof made in this manner doth work effectually being given in Broth. Take a sufficient quantity of Rubarb and let it be steeped in Cinnamon-Water which being strongly pressed-forth let it be stilled in a glasse Limbeck in Balneo untill the Water be drawn forth and the substance remaining be of the thickness of Hony which keep in a close covered-pot or glasse for the use aforesaid The powder of Rubarb taken with a little Minnia and Madder-roots in some red Wine dissolveth congealed or clotted-Blood in the Body happening by any fall or Bruise and healeth Burstings and broken-parts aswell inward as outward the Oyl likewise wherein it hath been boyled worketh the same effect the part being anointed with it It helpeth also the Yexing Hiccop Yexing Hiccop and all Fluxes of the Belly if it be toasted or dryed a little by the fire but much more if it be roasted or half burnt and taken in Wine after this manner Take a pint of good Claret-Wine and burn it with some Sugar and a top or two of Rosemary into which put a dram and an half of Rubarb roasted as aforesaid and one dram of Chebol Merobalanes a little broken or bruised let these stand in the burnt Wine all night by the fire and strain it forth in the Morning giving this at two times fasting which will in three or four dayes stay any scouring or Lask Scouring Lask strengthning the Stomack and inward parts afterwards It is used to heal those Ulcers that happen in the Eyes Stomack Eyes or Eye-lids and to asswage the Tumors and allay the inflamations being steeped and strained and applyed with Hony or Cute that is to say any boyled Wine it taketh away any black and blew Spots or marks that happen therein This Rubarb is so gentle a medecine that it may be given to all Constitutions whether they be Children or Women with Child and that safely at all times of the year the whey of Milk but especeially of Goats Milk is the best and most proper liquor wherein it is to be steeped and taken or else in White-wine whereby it worketh more effectually in opening Obstructions and purging the Stomack and Liver from Choler and Flegm a little Indian Spikenard used therewith is the best Correcter thereof Rosemary Kinds and Names THere was formerly but one kind of Rosemary known to us which was the ordinary Rosemary but now we have discovered several sorts which shall follow with their Names before their Descriptions Descript 1. Ordinary Rosemary It is called in Latine Libanotis coronaria sive Rosmarinum vulgare This is no natural English plant yet in divers Gardens in this Land where it hath stood long aswel as in its naturall Soil it groweth in time to a great height with a great and Woody stem of a close firm substance and whitish within branching forth into many Arms from them again into many other smaller branches at the joints whereof are set at several distances many long and very narrow leaves green above and greyish underneath and with all along the stalks towards the tops divers small gapeing flowers of a pale bleak blewish colour standing in whitish husks the seed is small and reddish but seldom doth any that is sown in our Country endure the first Winter without Extraordinary care and therefore is usually increased by slipping The whole plant hath an Aromatical smell Descript 2. Gilded Rosemary Rosmarinum striatum sive Aureum is the Latine appellation This differeth not from the former in any thing but in the leaves which are edged or striped or pointed with with a fair Gold yellow colour which so continueth all the year yet fresher in Summer than Winter Descript 3. Broad-leafed Rosemary called in Latine Rosmarinum Latifolium This groweth like the former but not so great in our Country nor with such Woody branches and is more tender to keep the leaves are larger and of a more shining deep green colour on the upper side and little or nothing whitish underneath more thinly also or sparsedly set on the stalks the flowers differ nor from the former kinds Descript 4. Double flowred-Rosemary Rosmarinum flore duplici This differs from the former in this that it hath stronger stalks while it is young then the last or not so easie to break fairer also and larger leaves then the first and the flowers are double like those of the Larkes-heel or Larks-spur Descript 5. Whild-sweet Silesia Rosemary or Mathiolus his Wild Bohemian Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre Bohemicum Mathioli sive Laedum Silesiacum Clusii This riseth with Woody ash-coloured branches two foot high or more which shoot forth other branches of a purplish colour covered with a brownish-yellow hoariness on which are set many narrow long green leaves like unto those of Rosemary but covered with the like hoariness as the stalks are especially in their natural place but not so much being transplanted folding their sides so close together that they seem nothing but ribs or stalks of an excellent pleasant and sweet smell at the ends of the branches grow certain brownish and scaly leaves out of which spreadeth a tuft of many flowers consisting of five white leaves a peece with ten white chines or threeds in the middle and in some plants with six leaves and twelve threds or Chives after which follow five long square heads spotted with silver-like white spots while they are green but grow brownish when they are ripe and turn down their tops opening their husks at the stalks least the seed which is as small as dust should fall out the Root is Woody with short sprigs Descript 6. Unsavory Wild Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This doth nearly resemble Rosemary but is not sweet like them It groweth above a foot high having divers reddish branches which divide themselves into others smaller of a whitish colour set confusedly with long and narrow leaves green on the upperside and hoary underneath like those of the Dwarffe-Willow of no pleasant scent at all but of an Astringent taste At the tops of the branches stand divers heads composed of many short scales out of which shoot forth sundry flowers standing on long foot-stalks made of five leaves a peece of a fine pale reddish or flesh colour after which rise short five-square heads with blunt points containing small pale coloured seed Descript 7. Our Wild Rosemary Rosmarinum sylvestre minus
Bryar-ball is often used being made into powder and drunk to break the stone to provoke Urine and to ease and help the Chollick Whites Stone Vrine Chollick In the middle of these balls are often found certain white worms which being dryed and made into powder and some of it drunk is found by long experience of many to kill and drive forth the worms of the belly Rice Descript THis grain or Corn riseth up with a stronger stalk than wheat about a yard high with sundry joynts and a large thick leaf at each of them like unto the Reed at the top it beareth a spiked tuft spread into branches whose blooming is said to be purplish with the seed standing severally on them inclosed in a hard brown straked husk and an Arm at the head of every one of them which being hulled is very white of the bigness almost of wheat Cornes blunt at both ends Names Rice is called in latine Oriza and the Italians call it Rizo the French Rys Place and Time This grain originally was brought out of the East-Indies where in many places it yieldeth two Crops in a year being the chiefest Corn they live upon and not with them onely but through all Aethiopia and Africa and from thence hath been brought into Syria Aegypt Italy c. It delighteth to grow in moist grounds and is a Summer Corn ripe about the middle of Autumn Government and Vertues It is a Solar grain The physical use thereof is chiefly to stay the Lasks and Fluxes of the stomach and belly especially if it be a little parched before it be used and steel quenched in the milk wherein it is boyled being somewhat binding and drying It is thought also to increase seed Lasks Fluxes increase Seed being boyled in milk and some sugar and Cinnamon put thereunto The flower of Ryce is of the same property and is sometimes also put into Cataplasmes that are applyed to repell humours from flowing or falling to the place and is also conveniently applyed to womens breasts Repell humors Inflamations in womens breasts to stay Inflamations therein in the beginning thereof Spanish Safron Kinds and Names I shall describe severally the sorts hereof and therein set down their names Descript 1. The manured Spanish or bastard Safron called in Latine Cnicus sive Carthamus sativus This hath sundry large leaves lying next the ground without any pricks or with very few white ones at the corners of the leaves and divisions among which riseth a strong round stalk three or four foot high branching it self up to the top bearing shorter leaves sharp-pointed and prickly at the edges and at their ends a great open scaly head out of which shoot forth many gold yellow threads of a most orient and shining colour which being gathered in a dry warm time and kept dry will abide in the same delicate colour which it bare when it was fresh for a long time the seed when it cometh to maturity is white and hard somewhat long and round and a little cornered the root is long white and woody perishing yearly after seed time Descript 2. Wild or bastard Safron of Candy Cnicus alter Creticus This hath a thick and long black root from which riseth up one streight round stalk half a cubit high set here and there with long sharp-pointed leaves thick set with prickles at the dents of the edges at the top whereof standeth a scaly head compassed with prickly leaves of the bigness of the Atractylis or distaff-thistle out of which break forth divers thick yellow Safron-like threads thrust thick together a fier which the seed groweth therein being white and as big as the greater Centory-seed Descript 3. Clusius his everliving bastard Safron Cnicus alter perennis Clusâ—i This groweth up with divers hard strong and round stalks without any branches at all from them to the height of three or four foot bearing thereon at several places somewhat large and long leaves dented about the edges of a sad or dusky green colour at the top of every stalk standeth one great close hard scaly head but not prickly at all not so great as the other bastard-Safron never opening the scales of the head as that doth from the middle whereof cometh divers threads yet nothing so many as in the other of a sad blewish ash colour and whitish at the bottom of them the seed which lyeth among the down in those heads is greater than of the other thick and short but not white and in lesser quantity than it The Roots run down deep into the ground and being there increased do run and spread themselves taking up a great deal of room Place and Time The first is generally sown in Spain Italy and other places for the especial use thereof The second Alpinus saith was brought out of Candy the last groweth wild in Spain aswel about Sevil as Cordula and in several other places as Clusius saith These kinds of Safron are called both in Greek and Latine Cnicus and Cnecus and in Apothecaries shops Carthamus of some also Crocus Saracenicus the Arabians call it Kartan the Italians Saffarano Sarasenisco the Spaniards Alacor and Acafran Salvia the Germans call it wilder Safron the French Safron-bastard and graine de Peroquets because they use to feed Parrots with the seed in English wild Safron Bastard-Safron Spanish Safron and Catalonia Safron Government and Virtues These are all Solar the flowers of the first Spanish Safron are much used in Spain and other places to be put into their broths and meats they are also of great use in dying silk into a kind of a Carnation-colour the seed is chiefly used in physick or rather the kernels within the seed which beaten and the emulsion thereof taken in honyed water or the broth of a Pullet and taken fasting doth open the body and purgeth watry and Phlegmatick humours Phlegm Watry humours Chollick Dropsie both upwards and downwards which it also performeth if the emulsion thereof be given in a Glyster and thereby helpeth the Chollick and dropsie and those other diseases that proceed from those humours Being made into a lohoch or licking Electuary with Sugar and honey and a few Almonds and Pine-kernels it wonderfully cleanseth the breast and lungs of phlegm sticking thereon causing it to be spit forth Phlegm Breast Lungs Sperm Voice cleared it clears the voice and increaseth seed by the often use of it but it doth somewhat trouble the stomach and therefore some stomachichal helpers are to be used with it As Anniseed Galanga Mastich or if need be of more forceable Cardamoms Ginger Salgem a dram of the flowers in powder taken in Hydromel or honyed water or in Barley-water helpeth the Jaundise Jaundise a dram of the pulp of the seed taken with an ounce of Syrup of wormwood doth the like also the Confection made of the seeds of it called in Shops Diacarthamum is an especial good medicine to purge Choler and flegm as also to clear and
they are green and less when they are dry yet the decoction of them or the Infusion of them in broth although dryed and taken whole worketh effectually which Fuschius denyeth and affirmeth that they bind rather they serve to cool any intemperate heat of the Stomach or liver and therefore are good in hot Agues and to purge choler whereof they come Mathiolus saith that ten drams or twelve at the most of the pulp of Sebestens taken from the skins and stones worketh aswel and to as good purpose as the pulp of Cassia Fistula They are very effectual also to lenifie the hoarsness and roughness of the throat they help the Cough and wheasing of the Lungs Cough Wheasing Lungs and distillations upon them by lenifying of the passages and causing much phlegm to be avoided They also give ease to such as are troubled with pains in their Sides Pains in the Sides Sharpness of Vrine Choler Worms and marvelously help those that are troubled with heat in their Urine and sharpness thereof proceeding from Choler or Salt phlegm they also drive forth the long worms of the belly There is a kind of Birdlime made of these fruits by boyling them a little in water to take away the skins and stones and afterwards boyling them more to a Consistence the which as saith Mathiolus was used at Venice to catch Birds but Alpinus saith they use it in Aegypt as a plaister to dissolve hard tumors or swellings Sena or Purging Sene. Kinds THere are two sorts of this purging Sena-tree differing very little between themselves as also three or four bastard-sorts more churlish than the other in working Descript 1. Sene of Alexandria Sena Alexandrina This Sene groweth not above a Cubit high with slender branches set with many leavs together on a rib somewhat like unto Liquorish being narrow and pointed which being dryed and brought over unto us if they be fresh will smell very like unto fresh new-made Hay The flowers stand at the tops of the branches one above another being as Mathiolus saith of a yellow colour like to the flowers of Coleworts after which come crooked thin husks fashioned somewhat like an half-moon in the middle part whereof grow flat seeds like unto Grape-kernels but of a blackish green colour and somewhat flat the whole Plant perisheth every year Descript 2. The Sene of Italy Sena Italica This Sena differeth in no other thing from the former but in the form of the leaves which are not so narrow-pointed but broader and rounder which difference is plainly to be discerned by comparing the leaves of that Sena which cometh from Alexandria with that which groweth in Italy Place and Time The first groweth in Arabia Felix and in Syria and is brought to Alexandria in Egypt as other things are which from thence is transported unto all other Countreys The other Mathiolus saith was in his time frequently sown in the Duke of Florence his Dominion in Italy Government and Virtues These are Plants of Mercury the leaves of Sene howsoever used are a safe and gentle purger aswel made into powder and the weight of a dram thereof taken in wine or ale or broth fasting as the Infusion of half an ounce in wine or ale for a night or the decoction of half an ounce or if need be of six drams with some other herbs or roots but because they are somewhat windy a few Anniseeds or Fennel-seeds and a little Ginger is to be added unto them to correct that evil quality And then they purge melancholy Choler and phlegm Melancholy Choler Flegm from the head and brain the lungs and heart the liver and Spleen Head and Brain Lungs Heart and Liver Spleen Stomach cleansing all those parts of such evil humours as by possessing them are the causes of those diseases incident unto them and comforting the Stomach especially if some cordial or stomachical helper be put into it Mesnes saith it hurteth the stomach but Monardus and Mathiolus deny it can do so in regard that Sena hath somewhat a bitter taste partaking of heat and dryness all which qualities are known rather to strengthen the stomach than to trouble or weaken it it strentheneth the senses both of sight and hearing and procureth mirth by taking away that evil humor Sight Hearing Myrth Obstructions Bowels which was the inward cause of sadness in the mind opening the obstructions of the bowels and causing a fresh and lively habit in the body prolonging youth and keeping back old age divers things are added hereunto to quicken the working hereof and to make it the more effectual As Rubarb Agarick Cassia Fistula Dracon Syrrup of Roses c. according as the nature of the disease age strength and necessity of the Patient do require Serapio saith it wonderfully helpeth such as are distracted of their senses by the extremity of fits in Agues or other diseases which makes them rave Raving idle talking Falling-Sickness Headach Palsyâ— Lowsie-Evil or talk idly The Epilepsie or the falling-sickness head-ach Palsie the Lowsie Evil all sorts of Itches Scabs Wheals or Pushes Sena is a good-Ingredient to put into a Bag for purging Ale to be taken in the Spring of the year not only for the forementioned diseases but to cleanse the bloud from all sharp humours mixed or running therewith purging-Prunes and purging-Currans are made herewith by boyling Sena and some opening herbs or roots with some Anniseed Fennel-seed Cynamon Ginger and Cloves some of these or all of them a little quantity and according to the proportion of the Prunes or Currans being set to stew with the decoction of the Sena and the other things above specified this doth open the body and purge the humours above-specified But because the Decoction of Sena is too unpleasant to weak and render stomachs the Infusion thereof for a night in warm Embers is much less offensive but no less purging In that Infusion while it is warm you may dissolve some Manna or put into it some Syrrup of Roses and so take it Cassia Fistula may be drawn with the Decoction of Sena corrected as aforesaid and so given of it self or made into a bole with Rubarb powdered or with the powder of Sene leaves and a little Anniseeds and Fennel-seeds together The Lye wherein Sene and Camomile-flowers have been boyled is good to comfort and strengthen a weak brain Brains Sight Hearing Sinews shrunk Cold Cramps Itch. as also the sight and hearing if the head be washed therewith The same lye is also profitable for Sinews that are shrunk or stiff with cold or Cramps to warm comfort and extend them and to cleanse the body of the Itch being washed therewith Seasamum Names Descript IT is called the oyly purging pulse Sesamum and Sesama in Latine Upon the first springing up of this Plant from the seed it riseth up with four long small and somewhat broad leaves between which come forth others that when they are full grown are as large
and long as the great Night-shade leaves but some deeplier dented than others almost torn especially at the lower end of the leaf next the stalk each standing on a long footstalk The stalk riseth from among the leaves being streight thick fat strong and round two or three foot high from whence shoot forth on all sides if it be in warm fat ground divers stalks of leaves like unto the other or in a barren ground its bare without branches two for the most part set at a joynt and at each joynt of the stalk up to the top cometh forth one flower of a whitish colour which is somewhat long like unto a Bell-flower made of one leaf without division at the edges having a few long threads at the bottom not rising so high that they may be seen without opening the flower after the flowers are past there come up in their steads small long hard Cods having three or four or five Ribs or Crests which do open themselves into many parts having in each part small whitish yellow flat seeds lying therein the root is somewhat great and long with many strings and fibres at it taking fast hold in the ground both leaves stalks and seeds are very bitter while they are green but being dryed they become more pleasant The seed is more oyly than Linseed from whence is pressed forth a whitish oyl very sweet while it is fresh and will not in a long time decay or grow stronger Place and Time It groweth naturally in the Indies and other Eastern Countreys It flowreth in July and the seed is ripe about the end of September Government and Vertues This is an herb of Mars both seed and oyl are of temperature hot and moist near in the second degree and are of a mollifying and dissolving quality The green leaves are fit for fomentations to be used for the eyes to repress inflamations and pains thereof the seeds may be taken inwardly in decoctions or otherwise or used in a glister looseneth the belly the oyl is often used for the same purposes It sticketh in the teeth when it is eaten thereby causing a stinking breath It is said that the Egyptians use the Decoction of the seed for the Cough shortness of breath Eyes inflamed Bellly Cholick Cough Shortness of breath Plurisie and hard swellings of the Liver Mesue saith it lenifieth the roughness or hoarsness of the throat and voice Plurisie Liver Throat Voice and making it clear and free of pain It easeth pains of the head proceeding from the heat of the Sun The decoction of both herb and seeds with some honey is good for women to sit over whose wombs are hard or swollen Womb Hard Courses to bring down Scurf Dandrif Scabs and to bring down their courses and to wash their heads who are troubled with scurf dandrif or dry scabs the herb or seed doth stay vomiting Vomiting taken in an egge the oyl is effectual to anoint the face or any other part of the body to cleanse the skin and to take away Sun-burning Morphew Freckles Sun-burning Sinews shrunk Freckles Morphew Spots or skars or any other deformities of the skin it helps sinews that are shrunk and is good to anoynt any part scalded or burnt The true Sycomore-tree Names Descript Kinds THere are two sorts of this tree the one bearing fruit out of the Body and greater Arms of the tree only the other upon stalks without leaves The first is called in Latine Sycomorus and Ficus Egyptia the Egyptian Fig-tree and is the true Sycomore tree those trees which are vulgarly called Sycamores in England are a kind of Maples Descript 1. This Sycamore groweth to be a very great tree bigger than the Mulberry tree with great Arms and Branches full of round and somewhat long leaves pointed at the ends and dented about the edges very like the leaves of the Mulberry tree but harder and rougher like Fig-leaves this beareth small Figs or fruit and no flower differing in that from all other trees for it putteth forth the fruit out of the very body or trunk of the tree only and the elder branches next to the body and no where else And are very like unto white or wild Figs and of the same bigness but much sweeter and without any kernels therein The whole tree and every part aboundeth with milk if the bark be but gently wounded but if it be cut too deep it yieldeth no milk at all which maketh it to bear three or four times a year new rising out of the places where the old grew The root is solid hard and black and will abide fresh long after it is felled Descript 2. The other Sycamore is called Sycomorus altera ceu Ficus Cypria the Sycamore of Cyprus This groweth to be as big as a Plum-tree or white Poplar-tree the Arms and Branches bearing broad and somewhat round leaves like unto the Elm but very like unto the former This beareth such like fruit as Figs but smaller which rise both from the body and the greater Arms but not as the former but on certain stalks in branches which rise by themselves without any leaves with them and are as sweet as Figs and bear four times every year but not unless they be slit that the milk in them may come forth Place and Time The first chiefly in Egypt Syria and Arabia and other places adjacent The other in Cyprus Caria Rhodes and the neighbouring parts their time you may know by their Descriptions Government and Vertues These are under the particular Influence of Venus The fruit maketh the belly soluble but by its overmuch moisture it troubles the Stomach and giveth but little nourishment The milk that is taken from the tree by gently piercing the bark and afterwards dryed and made into Trochiss and kept in an earthen pot hath a property to dissolve Tumors and soften them and to soder and close together the lips of green wounds Belly soluble Tumors mollified Green wounds The fruit it self being applyed as a plaister worketh the same effect The said dryed milk is good against venemous creatures and the Plague Venemous Creatures Plague Pains in the head Ears Spleen and easeth the pains of the head and Ears and is good to be drunk by those persons that are Splenetick Spikenard Descript Names IT is a Root called Spike because it shooteth up hairy stalks of hairy-like Spikes many set together of a brownish colour the root doth somewhat resemble that of the French Nardus but of a paler blackish colour and without any scent Place It s natural growth is in the East-Indies Government and Vertues It 's Venu's Plant the properties are these It is of a gentle heating drying quality provokes Urine Vrine Fluxes Reds Whites Loathing meat stayeth Fluxes and both the reds and whites in women it takes away the loathing to meat and the gnawing in the stomach Gnawing of the stomach Swellings Stone Kings-Evil helps swellings the Stone in the
kidneys and the Kings evil the decoction helps the Inflamations of the Mother if they sit therein and causeth hair to grow on the Eye-lids Squinant Kinds Descript Names THere are two sorts of this Squinant a finer and a coarser or the true and a Bastard kind Descript 1. The finer sweet-smelling Rush It is also called Camels hay and Juncus odoratus tenuior sive schenanthos This Rush hath many tufts or heads of long Rush-like leaves set thick together one compassing another at the bottom and shooting forth upwards the outermost whereof are bigger and grosser than those that grow within which are of a foot long and better small round and stiff or hard of a quick and spicy taste somewhat pleasant and of a fine sweet gentle or soft scent It beareth divers round hard-joynted stalks having divers short brownish or purplish husks on the tops containing within them mossie whitish short threads or hairs wherein lyeth a chaffy seed The root is full of long fibres and hath the least scent or taste of any part thereof Descript 2. The grosser sweet-smelling Rush in Latine called Juncus odoratus crassior This groweth in the same manner that the former doth but is greater in every part thereof and less sweet aswell as less sharp and hot in taste Place and Time They grow naturally in Arabia Syria Mesopotamia and those tracts of the East countreys and in some places of Africa It never flowers in these colder Countreys if it be here planted but in those hotter parts it flowreth in the Summer-time Government and Vertues This Plant is under the dominion of Jupiter in Libra it discusseth Swellings and Wind but doth a little trouble the head Swellings Wind Vrine Womens Courses Humours Spitting blood Lungs Liver stomach reins Loathing meat Dropsie Cramps Convulsions Mother Liver Stomach Body It provokes Urine and womens courses it gently cutteth or breaketh humours and digesteth them and looseth the breathing places of the veins The decoction of the flowers drunk stayeth the spitting of blood and helps the griefs of the Lungs Liver Stomach and Reins The Root is held to be of an astringent property and is effectual for those that have a loathing to their meat a dram taken every morning fasting for certain days together with the like quantity of Pepper It is good for the Dropsie Cramps the decoction is good for women to sit in that are troubled with the Mother it allayeth the Inflammations of the Liver Stomach and body the roots do bind more and the flowers are more hot but in all the parts thereof there is an Astriction The whole Plant being boyled in the Broth of a Chicken is helpful to ease the pains of the womb which women feel after Child-bearing Pains of the womb Sores of the mouth Vlcers The powder thereof is good against Sores of the mouth and all creeping Ulcers and taken with wine and vinegar is good for those that have an Ulcer in their stomach if the stomach or belly be fomentâ—d with the decoction thereof it easeth the pains and taketh away all Inflamations therein Stoechas Descript Names THe ordinary Stoechas or Stoechados as it is usually called and also French-Lavenderâ— is a more tender plant than Lavender and more like an herb than a Bush or Shrub not above a foot and an half high having many narrow long whitish green leaves like unto Lavender but softer and smaller set at several distances about the stalks which spread into sundry branches at the tops whereof stand long round and sometimes four-square heads of a dark greenish purple-colour compact of many scales from which come forth the flowers of a bluish purple colour after which follow seed-vessels which are somewhat whitish when they are ripe containing blackish brown seed in them the root is somewhat woody and will hardly endure our cold winter except in some places or before it have flowred the whole Plant is somewhat sweet of scent but nothing so much as Lavender Place and Time This Staechas groweth in Arabia aswel as France and Spain In their natural Climate they flower in March and April but those which are planted in Gardens in our cold Countreys flower not till May or June Government and Virtues This is a Plant of Jupiter the decoction thereof helps diseases of the breast coughs and colds It is good in Medicines against Infections and poysons Breast Coughs Colds Poysons it is of a mixt temperature of a small earthy cold essence as saith Galen from whence it hath the quality of binding and of another earthy more extenuated whereby it is bitter by the mixture of both which it openeth obstructions and freeth the body from them It extenuateth cleanseth and strengthneth all the inward parts and bowels as also the whole frame of the body Inward parts and Bowels Brains Sinews Heart Black Choler Phlegm Head Brain cold griefs Brains Sinews Falling-Sickness Giddiness head Stomach Sadness it strengtheneth the brain sinews and heart and all the other inward parts It purgeth black Choler and phlegm aswel from the head and brain as other the instruments of the senses and comforteth them It is effectual in all cold griefs used in drinks baths or fomentings an oyl made therewith and fomented giveth as it were life to the brains and sinews by warming and comforting them Taken with vinegar of Squils it helpeth the Falling-Sickness and swimming of the head and is helpful for all pains of the head or stomach Taken with juice of Bugloss and of Pippins it helpeth sadness of the heart and melancholy it easeth the pains of the sinews Arteries muscles and joynts taken in what form you will the fumes thereof taken into the nostrils openeth them when they are closed taken in a Syrrup it helpeth Agues especially in those that are phlegmatick being boyled in Lye it is effectual for all those diseases of the head to wash it therewith Agues Scurf Dandrif Lice besides it cleanseth the head of Scurf and Dandrif and killeth Lice therein The Storax-tree Kinds Descript Names THere are accounted three sorts of the Storax tree whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The usual Storax-tree called in Latine Styrax Arbor vulgaris This Storax-tree groweth very like unto the Quince-tree both for form and bigness the leavs also are long and round and somewhat like but far less whitish underneath and stiff the flowers stand both at the joynts with the leaves and at the ends of the branches consisting of five or six large whitish leavs like unto those of the Orange-tree with some threds in the middle after which come cound berries set in the cups that the flowers were in before of the bigness of Hazel-nuts pointed at the ends and hoary all over each standing on a long footstalk containing within them certain kernels in small shells This yieldeth a most fragrant sweet Gum and clear of the colour of brown honey Descript 2. Storax with Maple-leaves Styrax folio Aceris From a
stirred together This Salve likewise will help Imposthumes hard tumors and other Swellings by by Bblows or Falls The Gum Taramahaca Descript THis Gum is said to be gathered from a great Tree like a Poplar that is very sweet having a red fruit or berry like to those of the Peony Virtues The Gum is of good use for outward remedies it serveth most in womens diseases to retain the Mother Mother in its place by laying a plaister thereof upon the Navel as also when it riseth up and is ready to strangle them put some Musk and Amber to it or a little Civet in the middle of the plaister This Gum being spread on leather and applyed to the side or spleen Spleen Wind that is grown hard and windy disâ—olveth the tumors disperseth the wind and bringeth much ease and help to the grieved part and is no less effectual in all tumors pains and torments in the body or joynts proceeding of cold raw and windy humors Tumors Pains Joynts Stomach Brain Memory Digestion Stomach Wind Armes Joynts Gouts applyed plaister-wise thereon To be applyed to the stomach with a third part of Storax a little Amber-greese and some wax is a singular help to strengthen the weakness thereof to strengthen the brain and memory as also in all defluxions from the head it likewise helps the appetite digestion and dissolves wind It helpeth also all running humors and pains in the Arms shoulders or any other part of the body the Joynts likewise Gout and Sciatica It is of temperature hot almost in the third degree and dry in the second the best is pure and clean without dross cleer and some of a whitish brown colour and more whitish in some parts of a little quick and sharp scent and quickly consuming into smoak being cast on quick coals Sealed Earth Terra Sigillata Though this be not an Herb yet because of its singular use in Physick I have here set forth whence it comes and its eminent Virtues The place of its growth is by all reports The Isle of Lemnos in the Aegean-Sea The best fine Bole is very like it The chiefest effects of it is to expell Poison The venome of Serpents it is good against Lasks and Fluxes Poyson Serpents Lasks Fluxes Plague and Bloody-fluxes the bitings of a Mad-dog it wonderfully helpeth old sores and consolidateth green wounds The fine bole of Armenia is found to be very effectual in the Plague it is also singular good in Lasks Bloody-fluxes and spitting of blood Spitting of Blood Catarrhes breath Vlcers Fistulaes for the Catarrhe or defluxion of thin humors upon the Breast and Lungs and shortness of breath and likewise against foul Ulcers of the mouth lungs or other parts and Fistulaes Turbith TUrbith used in shops is a root yet somewhat small and of an Ashcolour on the outside and white within having a pitch in the middle which is cut out and cast away as good for nothing and some peeces but not gummy at the ends having no manifest taste Place It groweth in many places of the Indies naturally and hath been transported into Asia Persia and Portugal Virtues It purgeth flegm and tough clammy humours Flegm tough-humours belly Dropsie Leprosie Pox Adust humours black Jaundies that fall on the joynts and those parts that are more remote it looseneth the belly of those Excrements that stick close thereto and cleanseth the breast from thick flegm It is good for those that have the Dropsie Leprosie or Pox as also those that are troubled with those diseases that arise from adust humours the black Jaundies or the like it helpeth day-Agues and all other diseases bred of Flegm The true Turpentine tree Kinds Description Names There are two sorts of the Turpentine-tree the one bearing broad-leaves and the other narrower leaves Descript 1. The broader leafed Turpentine-tree called in Latine Terebinthus Latifolia This Turpentine-tree in many places groweth but like a shrub yet in some to be a great tree the bark of the body and brances are Ash-colour the lesser being greenish and red while they are young sparingly set with large winged-leaves like unto the Pistack-tree but larger and smelling somewhat like unto a bay-Bay-leaf falling away and not holding on in winter The flowers are Mossy like unto the Olive-blossomes and grow on long-stalks coming out of certain knots from the ends of the branches in small tufts set in clusters together of a purplish brown Colour which pass into berries greenish at first reddish after and of a blewish colour tending to green when they are ripe glutinous in handling and sticking to their fingers that touch them having a kernel within them most of those berries that grow red before they be ripe fall away being empty this beareth also certain red hollow skinny bladders like long-horns full of a blackish liquor which breed small flyes or knats in them This tree being wounded in sundry places yieldeth forth a liquid Rozen or cleer Turpentine but nothing so thin as that of the Larch-tree Descript 2. The narrow-leafed Turpentine-tree called in Latine Terebinthus angustiore folio vulgatiore This Tree is in all things like the former but that it never riseth so high and the leaves are long and narrow much smaller than the former the berries are many of them red on the stalks at their full time which are empty husks and no good seed but some that will be full and good Place and Time The Turpentine-tree groweth in Narbone and Provence in sundry places of Italy and Spain Cyprus and Greece where for the most part it abideth small and low but groweth great and high in Syria Arabia Cilicia Armenia they flower somewhat early in the spring and the fruit is ripe in September and October Government and Virtues These plants are Solar both leaves bark and fruit and do binde strengthen and repel but the Turpentine doth heat cleanse and purge draweth and mollifieth and excelleth all other Rozens The berries being dry very nigh unto the third degree provoke Urine and are good for the spleen Vrine Spleen and for the biting of the Spider Phalangium of the berries is made an oyle as out of the berries of the Lentisk-tree which healeth and bindeth and is good in Cramps Convulsions hardness of the sinews and to close wounds Cramps Convulsions Sinews wounds The berryes themselves are much eaten by the people in Turky where they grow and make them their daily food warming comforting and opening the Uretory passages and doe provoke lust The Turpentine healeth mollifieth dissolveth digesteth and clenseth if a dram or two be taken in a rear egge it helpeth the Cough which cometh by flegm stoppings of the lungs wheesings Cough lungs Wheesings Shortness of breath flegm Back Reins Vrine Stone Gravel Impostumes wind stomack sides Gout Sciatica pains in the joynts Green-wounds and fractures in the head sinewes itch Scab and shortness of breath and all imperfections of the chest by flegm It cleanseth
the back and Reins and stayeth the running of the Reins wiâ—h a little powder of Rubarb put thereto it provoketh Urine and helpeth to expel both stone and gravel it ripeneth Impostumes and helpeth to expel them and mightily dissolveth winde in the pains of the Chollick stomack or sides and is good also against the Gout Sciatica and all pains in the joints aswell to take it inwardly with Chamepitis Sage and Stoechas as to be made into a Cerecloth and applyed thereto It is a special ingredient in those Balsoms that are to heal any green wounds and is effectual in all wounds and fractures of the head all punctures in the head and sinews and all breakings out in the skin be it Itch or Scab Piles Pushes or wheals it draweth forth Splinters Piles Pushes Thorns Lips Hands Fundament thorns or the like out of the flesh and healeth the chaps of the lips hands fundament or other parts It is put into all salves oyls oyntments or plaisters that serve to cleanse Ulcers to draw or heal any sores and to warm and comfort any cold and weak parts the Chymical oyl of this Turpentine is very effectual in many of these diseases if it be carefully applyed it being of very subtil parts and therefore inwardly or outwardly it must be used as it were by drops Descript The Turmerick brought unto us is an Indian Root In which Countreys it springeth up and beareth larger and thinner leaves than Millet of a paler green colour a stalk full of leaves compassing one another to the top The Root is slender and yellow near unto the form of Ginger Government and Vertues It is a Plant of Mars and is of great use in the yellow Jaundise Jaundise Old diseases Dropsie either the powder or the decoction being taken for it doth open obstructions of the gall and other parts It is of very good use in old and inveterate griefs and sicknesses and the evil disposition of the body called Cachexia and is very profitable against the dropsie Turn-Sole Kinds and Names OF Turn-Sole there are several kinds whose names shall follow with their Descriptions Descript 1. The greater Turnsole called in Latine Heliotropium maius This riseth up with one upright stalk about a foot or more high dividing it self almost from the bottom into divers smaller branches of a hoary colour At each joynt of the stalk and branches grow two small broad leaves somewhat like unto those of Calamint or Basil somewhat white or hoary also at the tops of the stalks and branches stand in any small white flowers consisting of four and sometimes of five very small leaves set in order one above another upon a small very crooked spike which turneth inwards like a bowed finger opening by degrees as the flowers blow open after which in their places come small cornered seed four for the most part standing together the root is small and threddy perishing every year and the seed shedding it self riseth again the next spring Descript 2. The greater creeping Turnsole is in a manner but the same with the fomer greater Turnsole because it is in most things so like it yet differeth in these particulars That it hath more and slenderer stalks not standing upright as the other doth but leaning down to the ground the stalks and leaves are lesser but hoary in like manner the flowers are white and stand in crooked spiky heads bowing like a Scorpions tail as the other but the seed being smaller standing singly or but two together the roots are small and perish in like manner Descript 3. The smaller Turnsole Heliotropium minus this smaller Turnsole groweth very low lying almost with his slender weak branches upon the ground having thereon many small leaves like the other in form but three times less in substance neither stalks nor leaves white nor hairry but of a dark green colour the flowers are much smaller and yellowish not growing in long crooked or bowing heads like the former nor at the tops of the branches but standing at the joynts upon very small stalks some above the leaves and others under them which afterwards turn into small round heads or buttons like unto warts wherein is such like seed as the last but smaller and rounder Descript 4. The Colouring or dying Turnsole Heliotropium triconum This dying Turnsole that beareth berryes three alwayes set together riseth up with an upright stalk branching it self diversly to the height of half a yard or there-abouts whereon grow broader and softer leaves than on any of the former like unto those of the sleepy night-shade and whitish withall set without order at the joynts up to the tops yet lesser above than below at the ends of the branches come forth small mossy yellowish flowers which quickly perish and fall away without giving any seed herein like unto the Ricinus or Palma Christi called the great Spurge for in the same manner also at the joynts with the leaves come forth the fruit or berries standing three for the most part alwayes joyned together upon short footstalks which are of a blackish green colour and rough or rugged on the outside wherein is contained ash-coloured seed which if the heads be suffered to grow over-ripe and be dryed with the Sun will fall out of themselves upon the ground and spring again in their natural places the next year thereby renewing it self for the root is small and perisheth after it hath born seed But these berries when they are at their full maturity have within them that is between the outer skin and the inward kernel or seed a certain juice or moisture which being rubbed upon a paper or cloath at the first appeareth of a fresh and lively green colour but presently changeth into a kind of blewish purple upon the cloath or paper and the same cloath afterwards wet in water and wrung forth will colour the water into a Claret-wine colour And these are those rags of cloath called Turnsole in the Druggists and Grocers shops and with all other people and serveth to colour Jellies or other things Place and Time These doe grow in Italy France and Spain in divers places The two first are planted in gardens here with us and doe flower and seed well every year but the other two will scarce grow to shew any seed in our cold Climate Government and Vertues These are Solar Plants to whom they yield obedience the head of the flowers always facing the Sun a good handfull of the greater Turnsole boyled in water and drunk purgeth both Choler and phlegm and being boyled in wine it is good against the stinging of Scorpions Choller Phlegm Scorpions Stone Reins Kidneys Bladder Vrine Womens Courses Easie birth Worms Gout Joynts pained Warts Wens Kernels Excrescencies Face Eye-lids to be aswel drunk as layd upon the place that is stung The same also boyled with Cummin and drunk helpeth them that are troubled with the Stone in the Reins Kidneys or Bladder provoketh Urine and Womens Courses
greater sort is but weaker by much nor is so strong to breed so much blood as it Place and Time The first groweth both in the East and West-Indies and from both places have been brought unto us and hath grown with us and sometimes born ripe Ears but not always and will desire a strong rich ground as the Millet doth It is sown only in the Spring and ripe in September the other is a stranger and seldome seen with us Government and Virtues The grain is certainly Saturnine of a dry quality the meat hath in it some clamminess which bindeth the bread close and giveth good nourishment to the body The sweetness also of the bread sheweth the power of nourishment in it but it breedeth thick blood and humors which cause obstructions It is properly used to be put into Cataplasmes to ripen Imposthumes Imposthumes much feeding thereon ingenders gross bloud which breedeth Itches and Scabs Itches Scabs in those that are not used to it of it is made drink also both in the Indies and in some of our English Plantations that will intoxicate assoon as our small Beer if it be made accordingly But is found to be very effectual if it be made accordingly to hinder the breeding of the stone so that none are troubled therewith that do drink thereof the leaves thereof are used also to fatten their Horses and Cattel Wormwood I Would willingly have omitted this common Wormwood and said nothing of it but that Culpepper hath so ridiculously Romanced upon it and it remains still under colour of truth Common Wormwood called Absynthium vulgare is well known to have many whitish green leaves somewhat more hoary underneath much divided or cut into parts from among which rise up divers hard and woody hoary stalks two or three foot high beset with like leaves as grow below but smaller divided at the tops into smaller branches whereon grow many small yellow buttons with pale yellow flowers in them wherein afterwards is contained small seed the root is hard and woody with many strings thereat the stalks hereof dye down every year but the root holdeth a tuft of green leaves all the winter shooting forth new again which are of a strong scent but not unpleasant and of a very bitter taste The Seriphium or Sea-wormwood is much weaker but of a pleasant bitterness Place and Time It is plentifully found in most places in England and flowers about August Government and Virtues All the sorts of Wormwoods are Martial Plants It is of a heating binding property and is said to purge Choler that cleaveth to the stomach or belly It is said also to provoke Urine help Surfets Choler Vrine Surfeits pains in the stomach Yellow Jaundise and ease pains in the stomach The decoction or the Infusion thereof taken doth take away the loathing to meat and helpeth those that have the yellow Jaundise for which purpose Camerarius in his Hortus Medicus giveth a good Receipt Take saith he of the flowers of Rosemary Wormwood and Blackthorn each a like quantity of Safron half that quantity all which being boyled in Rhenish wine let it be given after the body is prepared by purging a small draught thereof taken a few days together bringeth down womens Courses Womens Courses Heart Liver being taken with vinegar it helpeth those that are almost strangled by eating Mushrooms It helpeth the pains of the heart and Liver being beaten and mixed with Ceratum Cyprinum and applyed as also applyed to the stomach with Rosewater it giveth much comfort to those that have layn long sick It helpeth those that are troubled with the swelling and hardness of the spleen or those that have a hot sharp water running between the skin and the flesh It is often used both inwardly and outwardly for the worms the seed thereof helpeth the Bloody flux Spleen Worms Bloody-flux and all other fluxes vinegar wherein wormwood hath been boyled is good for a stinking breath that cometh from the gums or teeth or corruption of the Stomach The Conserve thereof is good against the Dropsie Stinking-breath Dropsie the Sea-wormwood worketh the same effects but weaker Thus I am sure I have set down all the true virtues of wormwood and it may be some more than will bear the Test when they are tryed if I should have written all that Authors say of wormwood I should have taken up a great deal of room stuff'd full of falsities for besides Culpeppers idle Romancing upon it others have mightily commended it for dimness of sight and to clear the eyes if they had said it is good to cause dimness of sight and put out the eyes they had been nearer the truth Another story they have of it that it preserves cloaths from moths and worms and driveth away Gnats Fleas and such noisome Insects if the skin be anoynted with the juice or oyl thereof This is utterly false as I have had the experience upon my self for being troubled and gnats lodging in the countrey near the Sea-side where gnats are very troublesome in the night to prevent which as I then believed I caused my chamber to be rubbed all over and both walls and windows with wormwood and anointed my self with the juice of it all over thinking to have a quiet night but was worse infested with fleas and Gnats than ever before so that I was forced to leave my Chamber and walk all night These are the true virtues of wormwood Yucca or Jucca Descript THis Indian Plant hath a thick tuberous root spreading in time into many tuberous heads from whence shoot forth many long hard and narrow-guttured or hollow leaves very sharp-pointed compassing one another at the bottome of a greyish green colour abiding continually or seldome falling away with sundry hard threds running in them and being withered become pliant withal to bind things From the midst whereof springeth forth a strong round stalk divided into sundry branches whereon stand divers somewhat large white flowers hanging downwards consisting of six leaves with divers veins of a weak reddish or blush-colour spread on the back of three outer leaves from the middle to the bottom not reaching to the edge of any leaf which abide not long but quickly falling away Place and Time It groweth in divers places of the West-Indies as in Virginia and New-England and flowers about the latter end of July Government and Virtues There hath no property hereof conducible to physical uses as yet been heard of but some of its vices The Natives in Virginia use for bread the roots hereof And that the raw juice is dangerous if not deadly Aldinus relateth that the wound made with the sharp point-end of one of these leaves in his own hand wrought such intolerable pains that he was almost beside himself until by applying some of his own Balsamum unto it he was thereby miraculously eased of the pain and all trouble thereof It is very probable that the Indians use to poyson the